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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



OUR COUNTRY 

ITS POSSIBLE FUTURE AND ITS 
PRESENT CRISIS. 



BY 

EEV. JOSIAH STEONG, D.B., 

General Sfcretary of the Evangelical Alliance for the 
United States, New York. 



WITH AN introduction BY 

REV. C. H, BELL, D.D. 

REVISION BASED ON THE CENSUS OF 1890. 
SPECIAL EDITION FOE THE 

CUMBEELAND PEESBYTEEIAN PUBLISHING HOUSE, 

Nashville, Tenn. 



One Hundred and Fortieth Thousand. 



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published by 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO 

740 & 742 Broadway, New York. 

FOR 

THE AMEEICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 



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TwE Library 
Oii^ Congress 

GWflHBHfT'lf^S AND lifel, BY 

'HE A]<®JlU6yi^W8J!3MlISSIotARY SO61ETY. 



171, 173 Macdougal Street, New Yoxk 



PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 



Living issues have changing aspects. The first edition 
of ''Our Country," which was prepared for the Ameri- 
can Home Missionary Society when the author was its 
representative in Ohio, appeared early in 1886, and most 
of the book was written a year earlier. Although I en- 
deavored, to apply to the subjects discussed fundamental 
principles, which remain equally applicable to-day, the 
statistical treatment of these living issues renders revis- 
ion, after six years, quite essential to the further useful- 
ness of the book. Moreover the census of 1890 marks 
the present as a favorable time for such revision. Al- 
though important results of the census will not be avail- 
able for many months and even for years to come, 
the Superintendent, Hon. Robert P. Porter, has kindly 
furnished me with much valuable information. 

The favorable reception accorded to the book would 
seem to be sufficient reason for its revision. Perhaps it 
may be of interest to state that in addition to the 130, 000 
copies which have passed into circulation, a large part, 
if not the whole of the book, has been reprinted by the 
daily press, prominent papers in the East, West, South 
and in Canada, each having printed from one to three 
chapters entire. Four chapters were re-published in Lon- 
don and one in Glasgow. The book has been translated 
into one foreign language, and numerous propositions 
have been received relative to translating it into others. 

I am devoutly thankful to God that he has used the 



4 PREFACE. 

book to accomplish in some measure what was intended 
by it. No one, I am sure, can have been more sensible 
of its defects than myself. 

This revised edition has the benefit of criticisms made 
on earlier editions. It surely is not strange that among 
some thousands of statements of fact a number of errors 
should have been found, due in most instances to having 
accepted statements or estimates from men eminent 
enough, but not authorities on the point quoted ; e. g. , 
Mr. Gladstone's estimate (p. 98.) that ''manufacturing 
power, by the aid of machinery, doubles for the world 
once in seven years," which, it appears, is altogether ex- 
travagant. I may add that none of the errors referred 
to was essential to the argument, and therefore did not 
invalidate its conclusions. 

Our Eoman Catholic friends have objected, and quite 
justly, that the Pope's utterances were not quoted liter- 
ally. That no injustice might be done, it was my inten- 
tion in the first edition to take all statements of Roman 
Catholic teaching or policy from Roman Catholics 
themselves, but as I then had no access to original 
sources of information, I was obliged to take quota- 
tions second-hand from Protestant writers. Six years 
ago there was very little agitation of the Roman Catholic 
question and reliable information was then much more 
difficult to obtain. The utterances of the Pope quoted 
were taken from " Fate of Republics," in which the prop- 
ositions of the " Syllabus of Errors," issued by Pius IX., 
December 8, 1864, were put in positive instead of negative 
form, which does to some extent change their force and 
perhaps their meaning. Although I had then no reason 
to doubt the literalness of the quotations, I made re- 
peated but unsuccessful efforts to obtain the Latin orig- 
inal by which to verify them. 

No Roman Catholic, however, will have occasion to 
criticise the revision on any such ground. 

It having been decided that the book would bear some 
enlargement, explanatory notes have been added more 
freely than was practicable in the narrower limits of the 



MEE*ACE. 5 

earlier editions. Some short passages have been omitted 
to make room for new and more important matter, 
which has been added to every chapter but one. A 
chapter on Peril to the Public Schools has been added, 
the greater part of which was read before the seventh 
triennial session of the National Council of Congrega- 
tional Churches at Worcester, Mass., October 14, 1889. 
The chapter on Romanism is almost entirely new and 
much enlarged. 

The map and most of the diagrams which appear in 
this revision are from "Leaves from ' Our Country,'" 
illustrated by Rev. C. C. Otis, of Springfield, 111., pub- 
lished by the American Home Missionary Society in 1888, 
to which society I am indebted for their use. I desire 
also to express my thanks to the many gentlemen, 
too numerous to name, who have kindly aided me 
with courteous answers to my inquiries for informa- 
tion. 

The outlook is distinctly brighter than it was a half 
dozen years ago, not because there are fewer perils to 
face, nor, with one or two exceptions, because they are 
any less threatening, but because the public mind is 
being aroused to some appreciation of them, and the 
Christian Church is beginning to awake to the magnitude 
of her opportunity and obligation. The awakening how- 
ever, is only a beginning, and leaves very much to be de- 
sired. 

The difference in the situation to-day and five years 
ago is not such as to warrant the slightest relaxation of 
effort, but should rather stimulate endeavor with new 
courage. 

This work is an attempt to present some of the perils 
which threaten our future, and to point out the magni- 
tude of the issues which hang on the present. I have in 
preparation a work which is more constructive in char- 
acter, and which will endeavor to show what action is de- 
manded by existing conditions. This book is for the 
most part, a diagnosis ; the forthcoming one will venture 
to suggest some remedies. Josiah Strong. 



CONTENTS. 



Inteoduction. p. 11. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PKOBLEM. 

The closing years of the nineteenth century are one of the 
great focal points in history. It is proposed to show that the 
progress of Christ's kingdom in the world for centuries to 
come depends on the next few years in the United States. P. 15 

CHAPTER 11. 

NATIONAL RESOURCES. 

Yastness of our domain, compared with Europe and China. 
Our agricultural resources equal to sustaining 1,000,000,000 
inhabitants. Mineral wealth : mineral product greater already 
than that of any other country. Manufactures, present and 
prospective: led Great Britain, in 1880, by ^650,000,000. Our 
threefold advantage. United States to become the workshop 
of the world. With all our resources fully developed can not 
only feed, but enrich 1,000,000,000. P. 21. 

CHAPTER III. 

WESTERN SUPREMACY. 

Extent of Western States and Territories. Nearly two and 
one-half times as much land west of the Mississippi as east of 
it, not including Alaska. The " Great American Desert." 
Amount of arable, grazing, timber, and useless lands. Min- 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

eral resources of the West. With more than twice the room 
and resources of the East, the West will have probably twice 
the population and wealth of the East. P. 29. 

CHAPTER IV. 

PERILS. — IMMIGB ATIGISr. 

Controlling causes threefold. 1. Attracting influences in 
the United States; prospect of proprietorship in the soil; this 
is the land of plenty; free schools. 2. Expellant influences of 
Europe: prospect not pacific; France, Germany, Austria, Italy, 
Russia, Great Britain ; military duty; the "blood tax"; popu- 
lation becoming more crowded. 3. Facilities of travel; labor- 
saving machinery. All co-operate to increase immigration. 
Foreign population in 1890. Moral and political influence of 
immigration. Influence upon the West. P. 44. 

CHAPTER V. 

PEBILS. — ROMANISM. 

I. Conflict of Romanism with the fundamental principles of 
our government ; popular sovereignty ; liberty of conscience ; 
free speech, and a free press ; separation of Church and State ; 
free schools ; loyalty to the Constitution and loyalty to the 
Pope. II. Attitude toward our free institutions. III. Impos- 
sible to "make America Catholic " without bringing the princi- 
ples of that church into active conflict with those of our 
government. IV. The course of moderate Romanists in such 
an issue. V. Rapid growth of Romanism in the United 
States, especially in the West. P. 62. 

CHAPTER VI. 

PEKILS. — BELIGION AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Two theories which threaten the schools. I. That of the 
Roman Catholic hierarchy ; II. That of the Secularists. Tlie 
State must provide for its own preservation. Popular 
morality essential to popular government. Certain funda- 
mental religious truths essential to successful training in 
morality. Those truths should be taught in the public 
schools. P. 92. 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER YII. 

PERILS. — MORMONISM. 

Polygamy not an essential part of Mormonism ; might be 
destroyed without weakening the system. Strength Hes in 
ecclesiastical despotism. Mormon designs. The remedy. 
Important decisions of the supreme court. P. 111. 

CHAPTER YIII. 

PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 

I. The progress of civilization renders men the easier 
victims of intemperance. Civilization must destroy the liquor 
traffic, or be destroyed by it. The problem serious enough in 
the East. What of the West, where the relative power of the 
saloon is two-and-one-half times greater ? 

II. The liquor power ; wealth ; organization ; aims ; 
methods. Influence in Rocky Mountains and beyond. P. 121. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

The Socialistic Labor Party and the International Work- 
ing-men's Association. Teachings. Numbers. Conditions 
favorable to growth : 1. Immigration ; 2. Increasing Indivi- 
dualism ; 3. Prevalence of skepticism ; 4. Development of 
classes ; 5. Growing discontent. Modern enginery of destruc- 
tion. Conditions at the West peculiarly favorable to the 
growth of Socialism. P. 138. 

CHAPTER X. 

PERILS. — WEALTH. 

Comparative statement of wealth. Rate of increase. Ad- 
vantages over Europe. Dangers : 1. Mammonisra ; 2. Mate- 
rialism ; 3. Luxuriousness : 4. Congestion of wealth. All 
these dangers greater at the West than at the East. P, 162. 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

PEBILS. — THE CITY. 

Disproportionate growth of the city. Each of the preced- 
ing perils, except Mormonism, enhanced in the city, and all 
concentered there. Moral and religious influence and govern- 
ment all weakest in the city, where they need to be strongest. 
The West peculiarly threatened. P. 179. 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE INFLUENCE OF EABLY SETTLERS. 

First permanent settlers impress their character on future 
generations. Illustrations. Character of the formative influ- 
ences in the West. P. 195. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 

Meaning of cheap public lands, and significance of their 
occupation. Their extent. Exhausted in fifteen or twenty 
years. The character of the West and, hence, the future of 
the nation to be determined by 1900. P. 203. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOELD'S FUTURE. 

Reasons why the world's future is to be shaped by the 
Anglo-Saxon. The United States to be the seat of his power 
The most marked characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon race are 
liere being emphasized, and the race schooled for the competi- 
tion with other races, which will begin as soon as the pressure 
of population on the means of support is felt in the United 
States. The result of that competition. The responsibility of 
this generation. P. 208. 

CHAPTER XV. 

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

For an unparalleled opportunity God has conferred on this 
generation the power of unprecedented wealth. It is for the 
Church to recognize the relations of the one to the other, P. 228 



INTRODUCTION 

TO THE 

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN EDITION. 



Whoever would not be content with a defective education 
concerning his country's resources and progress, the elements 
and conditions of society which are significant of peril, the 
emergencies of the hour, the grand opportunities for Christian 
endeavor, and the imperative need of strategy in Home mis- 
sions should not forego reading and studying this masterly 
production. Dr. Austin Phelps of Andover, in his introduc- 
tion to the regular edition, says, ** This is a powerful book. 
Its great strength lies in its facts. These are col- 
lated with rare skill, and verified by the testimony of men and 
of documents whose witness is authority. The book will 
speak for itself to every man who cares enough for the welfare 
of our country to read it, and who has intelligence enough to 
take in its portentous story." 

Even those readers who fancy themselves fairly informed 
through other sources, will be instructed and thrilled by the 
story unfolded, and by the sound arguments presented. 
'' Kacth me the Bible, and I will prove it," said the stern old 
Scotch elder, whose seemingly extravagant statements no one 
dared formally to question, but which manifestly taxed the 
credulity of his class. In like manner, while very many have 
taken in hand to set forth in order, by the use of the most ex- 
pressive adjectives, America's superior advantages and en- 
richments, and the wonderful progressiveness of the age, the 
author of this book furnishes absolutely overwhelming evi- 
dences thereof, and demonstrates beyond question that the 
people of the United States, enriched by Nature's gifts, and 
favored as they are with free civil institutions, and the wealth, 
priceless, of pure Christian teachings, are pre-eminently 
endowed and equipped for advancement in Christian civiliza- 
tion, and for shaping in a large measure, the world's future. 



lNTEODUCTlO:tf. 

The ideas and acts of one generation inevitably affect the 
fortunes of those thaff^low. Tlie fifteenth century, in many 
particulars, witnessed much that is characteristic of the 
current age, — remarkaj^le physical activity on the part of rest- 
less, eager man, — bold intellectual strides, — crossing of currents 
of thought, — hitherto unparalleled discoveries and inventions ; 
— another continent was needed, and America was discovered. 
"From all this," writes Guizot, "some idea may be formed 
of the greatness and activity of the fifteenth century : a 
greatness which at the time was not very apparent ; an activity 
of which the results did not immediately take place. Violent 
reforms seemed to fail ; governments acquired stability. It 
might have been supposed that society was now about to enjoy 
the benefits of better order and more rapid progress. The 
mighty revolutions of the sixteenth century were at hand ; 
the fifteenth century prepared them." There was a veritable 
Renaissance, besides that of Classical literature, and the Fine 
Arts. The Reformation came on apace, and religious revolu- 
tion was the absorbing fact of the sixteenth century. The 
human mind revolted against absolute power, ecclesiastical 
and civil, and asserted its right to freedom. 

Representatives of different nationalities, but of similar ex- 
periences, and with distinctively Protestant religious convic- 
tions exiled themselves and united their energies, and mingled 
tlieir blood in the new British Colonies on American soil. 
The preparatory process has continued. The phenomenal 
growth and the steadfast tread of the nation have placed it in 
all things important, at least abreast, and in some partic- 
ulars a full step in advance of every other ruling power of 
earth. 

With a touch of humor, Americans are often charged with 
lofty speaking, but in sober truth, largeness is a notable char- 
acteristic of much that is American. Although our country 
is the youngest of the great nations, with seven eighths of its 
aiable lands yet untouched by a plow ; with seemingly 
exhaustless beds of minerals, yet undeveloped ; and vast 
forests, in which the woodsman's axe is yet unheard,— its 
annual income, number of cattle, amount of agricultural prod- 
ucts, metallic yield, out-put of factories, and mileage of rail- 
roads, exceed those of Great Britain. The daughter has taken 
the first and the mother occupies the second rank among the 
nations of the world, and the transfer of empire from Europe 



IKTROBUCTIOH. 

to America, so long ago predicted by Adam Smith, may as well 
be accepted as an accomplished fact. 

J^o where else is modern enterprise causing the fullness of 
the earth to be poured out in such torrents. Mighty forces 
muscular and mental are daily applied in finding and appropri- 
ating Nature's treasures for man's uses, in constructing great 
indu'stries, and in adding elegancies and conveniences of life. 
The rush, even rage, in pursuit of riches is simply marvelous. 
If civilization consisted merely in multiplication of comforts 
and luxuries, then would America be indeed on the high road 
to excellence, but it is a mooted question whether large wealth 
is even a friendly factor in race elevation— a question which 
can be determined only in given cases, the result depending 
wholly upon the right or wrong use made of it. 

Thoughtful men and women cannot fail to see that pluck, 
push, and plethoric purses have a bearing upon vital problems 
touching human destiny and well-being, other than those 
relating to the supply of physical wants and the gratification 
of legitimate taste. " Meat, fire and clothes ! what more do 
riches give ? " inquired Alexander Pope. To the sensuous, 
nothing, except a surfeit of luxuries and a shameful indul- 
gence of lust and the pride of life ; while, in the hands of the 
philanthropist and the spiritually-minded, wealth is an instru- 
ment of tremendous power for good. Dissociated from worth, 
and devoted to other than personal and family support, intel- 
lectual growth, and benevolent uses,— it is a dreadful foe. 
Consecrated to the Lord, to whom all belongs, including self, 
it is a true friend to humanity, and through it friends are 
made for eternity. Since money may be rightly used »for 
whatever is essential for highest individual development and 
fitness for the greatest measure of usefulness, reasonable 
appropriation for such ends, is a duty as well as a privilege. 
With utmost fairness our author, in his forcible discussion of 
"Money and the Kingdom," holds that art has an educating 
value and that the beautiful is to some a necessity. Albeit 
wealth can be rightly applied only in the way and manner 
most honoring to God. 

What shall be done with the surplus ? Is there too much 
wealth ? No, — the Lord made it and it is his. " Brother 
John," said Lord Gifford, "I have had a terrible night. I 
began to fear that I was growing fond of money. I must 
make it useful, not to myself, not to my family, but to my 



iKTilODtrci^IOK. 

fellow creatures at large." There is to-day a Gifford Lecture- 
ship in Glasgow University. 

The money problem, however, is not chief ; the most serious 
question relates to manhood and talent ; rightly used, they 
carry with them all things else. The brainy, brawny,' brisk 
American is, in himself, an estate in trust for the world's 
good. " The noblest of God's making " is a noble wise-hearted 
man, or woman, given to noble deeds. A dire calamity is life 
misspent, which comes of wrongly directed energy, or the 
non-use of means for worthy ends ; and as communities and 
states are but associations of a number of individuals, the 
calamity is all the greater when they go wrong, and betray 
their trust. 

Great trusts entail great responsibilities. Much given, 
much required is not only the law of the kingdom, but a rule 
approved by enlightened human judgment as well. 

Will our country with its enormous resources, and its 
splendid equipments, fulfill its mission, and in the progress 
of the ages, exemplify in the sight of all nations the excellency 
of a true civilization ? This is a pregnant question, inviting, 
even commanding, the most serious thought of christian and 
non-christian patriots and philanthropists. Thinking men are 
impressed with the truth that the permanency of our institu- 
tions is by no means assured. Although the idea that failure 
is even possible may be appalling, yet, our national life has 
never been free from peril. 

Pending problems touching the nation's welfare require, for 
their solution, the best brain and heart of the land. The 
world is looking on, and wondering what the result will be. 
"The nations of the earth," says Dr. Pierson, "are waiting to 
see whether liberty, guarded by the minimum of law and grant- 
ing the maximum of personal independence, freedom of 
speech and freedom of movement, is a safe estate for the 
average man." The test, yet to be completed, relates more 
directly to the question, — whether the people, in whose hearts 
the spirit of personal liberty is regnant, will wisely exercise 
the functions of empire for the public good, not merely in 
matters of social welfare and the supply of means for physical 
support, but in that which civilization in its extensive signifi- 
cation comprehends, the development of man's higher nature, 
which commits him to a destiny above and beyond the mun- 
dane. While liability to corruption and anarchy in limited 



INTRODUCTIOK. 

circles in a republic may be great, it is obvious that the free 
exercise of personal liberty, duly guarded, is most conducive 
to the upbuilding of personal character, and hence it is fairly 
assumed that a popular form of government is at once, when 
judiciously administered, the best matrice for race devel- 
opment ; and yet perchance the worst, should liberty, un- 
checked, become headstrong. Electricity promises to surpass 
steam and all other natural agencies in serving humanity, yet 
when not under proper control, it is an instrument of dreadful 
mischief. 

The history of pure civilization, universal in a single state 
or nation, is yet to be written ; such a condition having never 
existed, not even in our own country. The truth should not 
and cannot be disguised that shameful disorders are not 
uncommon. Some are outgrowths, though not necessarily, of 
our free institutions. License has been mistaken for liberty. 
Wisdom and virtue have been tolerant of vice, until wicked- 
ness has entrenched itself and become defiant, — crime stalks 
abroad unpunished, — greed for pelf and pleasure is enormous, 
and political corruption and fraud are flagrant, even shockino- 
to the moral sense of the nation ; and what Ruskin calls *' the 
infidelity of England" is rife among many brain-workers in 
high fife, as evinced by their disregard of God's laws in plan- 
ning life work for themselves and for others. 

Not a few whose attention has been arrested by the motor- 
wheels of vice at work in our country, take quite a pessimistic 
view of the situation, and well-nigh despair of the Republic. 
To them the cloud has no silver lining. Others, though not 
unobservant of the lawlessness so common, and of the de- 
praved tendencies of the tim^s, see counter-active forces at 
work, and entertain high hopes of a peaceable adjustment of 
all our difficulties and an escape from the dangers that en- 
viron us. 

We are to look for these counter-active forces in the vital- 
izing doctrines of grace, proclaimed and taught by energetic 
Christianity. Ignore the fact who may, nevertheless the 
history of civilization in its purest form is the history of the 
gospel's strange work, and the best social order is found only 
in communities wherein the ethical spirit of Christianity is 
dominant. We do not say that there are no features of civili- 
zation where the gospel has not been published, but that 
"human nature is under a constitutional law of ethical 



iNTKODUCTlOi^^. 

progress," Dr. Behrends rightly affirms, "is tlie purest of 
assumptions contradicted by all ethnic testimony." Nothing, 
absolutely nothing, except the mind which was in Christ 
Jesus "can supplant the spirit of self-seeking which is at the 
bottom of every meanness at work in social life, from slum to 
senate. When selfishness, with its cruel motto, " Every man 
for himself, and the weakest to the wall," succumbs to 
brotherly kindness under the Spirit's ordering, "Look not 
every man on his own things, but every man, also, upon the 
things of others," social problems will be solved, and not 
before. 

In the light of these facts, the question of transcendent 
importance touching present problems, and even the life of 
the commonwealth, as well as the spiritual welfare of souls in 
the life that now is and that which is to come, awaits an 
answer, which, possibly in the near and certainly in the not 
distant future, will be the answer to the questions in hand. 
Will God's people fulfill their sacred trust in sounding out the 
gospel, apart from which, there is no spiritual regeneration of 
the individual, and no social order worthy to be called civili- 
zation. 

In no other land is the relative number of evangelical chris- 
tians so large, and the wealth so vast. Statistical tables con- 
sulted, show that there are more than thirteen millions of 
communicants in evangelical churches in our country, over one 
fifth of the entire population ; there are, in round numbers, 
142,000 church organization, 93,000 ordained ministers, 8,650,000 
Sabbath-school scholars, 146 Theological Seminaries, with, 309 
Colleges and Universities, owned and controlled by evangelical 
denominations ; while the wealth of Protestant Christians m 
the United States exceeds thirteen billions of dollars and their 
annual income over and above the cost of living is estimated at 
more than four hundred millions. The relative increase has 
been marvelously great; in 1800 there was one church to 1751, 
and one communicant to 14^ inhabitants. In 1886 there was one 
church to 483, and one communicant to 4.8 inhabitants. The 
increase of communicants since 1800 has been 33.03 fold as 
compared with 11.01 fold of population ; and it is fairly 
estimated that three-fourths of the inhabitants are either 
members, or adherents of the Protestant churches. 

Though the testimony of the church in the past has been 
immensely valuable, and Christian achievements brighten 



i:NrTRODUCTlOir. 

every page of history upon which they are recorded, it is 
nevertheless questionable whether even half of the possible 
has been accomplished. The number of workers impressing 
the current age with the force of personal character in Chris- 
tain endeavor is lamentably small as compared with the 
enrolled membership. Unhappily churches are not properly 
distributed; in cities they are crowded into popular and fash- 
ionable localities. Many are self-centered ; some are '* castles 
of indolence," and a large per cent, of the money contributed 
is used in the congregations which are well established, and 
the average gift for sending the gospel into destitute places is 
a mere bagatelle. 

The emergencies of the hour require, in order to a tremen- 
dously aggressive movement, not a larger number of men and 
women counted as church members, but a larger number of 
thoroughly consecrated workers, identified with the moral 
purposes of Christ ; men and women of prayer, empowered by 
the spirit for "holding forth the word of life" forcibly and 
persuasively ; men, who will use voice and ballot and influence 
against the popular vices which are menacing society ; 
women, whose whole life and speech will be the severest pro- 
tests against evil in its protean forms : men and women, con- 
scious of their power and opportunities, creating around them 
an atmosphere of pure Christianity. Not until the great body 
of Christians in America know the knowable, believe the 
believable, and awaken to the discovery of their obligations 
and their potentiality, will there be " stir and onset " equal to 
the exigencies of the present crisis. 

It is morally certain that there must be more thorough 
organization of forces, and wiser strategy in Home missionary 
operations before there will be real grappling with pending 
problems. No people in any age ever had fields for labor so 
wide and accessible ; incentives to work so great, or facilities 
so abundant for pressing the gospel into every neighborhood, 
and town, into every ward, and every subdivision of wards in 
our great cities. 

When, as in the moment of King David's conquests, two- 
thirds of the Lord's hosts gird themselves and go forth, 
holding the doctrines of grace in sustained contact with the 
masses of native and alien whites, the two hundred and fifty 
thousand yet unevangelized Indians, and seven millions of 
colored people, then may we expect that there will be " enough 



li^TRODUCTIOlf. 

intelligence and virtue to take care of the ignorance and 
vice," or at least, tlie responsibility will be removed from the 
shoulders of the Lord's people, while experience will attest 
the truth of the proverb, "virtue grows under an imposed 
weight." 

There is yet a broader aspect of the subject presented in 
this volume. . . . "The climax of the argument," says the 
Sage of Andover, "appears in the view taken of the auxiliary 
relation of this country's evangelizing to the evangelizing of the 
world. . . . Forecasting the future of Christianity, as states- 
men forecast the destiny of nations, we must believe that it 
will be what the future of this country is to be, — as goes 
America, so goes the world in all that is vital to its moral wel- 
fare." Dr. N. G. Clark, always on the alert and watchful of 
the signs of the times, forcibly strikes the same key-note : " The 
truth is we have come to one of the critical periods of history 
when tlie future of races and countries turns on the decisions 
almost of an hour. The lines of Providence converge on this 
age as on the first century of the Christian era. To us is given 
the great privilege of having part in the last and greatest 
triumphs of the Redeemer's work in the social regeneration of 
mankind. To us pre-eminently, is given the establishment of 
states and empires around the globe. By every sentiment of 
gratitude that can stir a (renerous christian heart, in every view 
of what the gospel has been to our country; by every sentiment 
of lovalty to our Great Leader, that should prompt to a loving 
obedience to his command ; by the loftiest motives that can 
move a redeemed soul, eager to offer its tribute of love, 
conscious of its high privileges as an heir of glory, we are 
called to accept and to fulfill our sacred trust." 

What is the bearing of the trust in question upon the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian Church,— for whose benefit chiefly this 
special edition of this book is published ? Not by accident but 
according to the Divine programme of the ages, as we con- 
ceive, a choice part of this young Republic's domain, wherein 
there are found the best opportunities and greatest induce- 
ment for Church extension and Christian service, has been for 
four-score years, the center of its influence and life-growth. 
It is not arrogance to say that the fabric of our church has 
been interwoven with the nation's best interests west of the 
Alleghanies during this period. Happy in location, happy in 



INTEODUCTIOi^^. 

creed, happy in homogeneousness, with church machinery in 
all departments, moving in harmony and with constantly in- 
creasing power, our inheritance is superb. . . . The prestige 
gained, and the capacity acquired are significant of the measure 
of trust imposed, and of the corresponding responsibilities. 
The thousands of doors opportunely opened to the church are 
as thousands of voices calling for messengers and messages of 
life. 

"As we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the 
gospel, so we speak." This was the apostolic tone; God grant 
that it may be ours. 

C. H. Bell. 



OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PROBLEM. 

There are certain great focal points of history toward 
which the lines of past progress have converged, and 
from which have radiated the molding influences of the 
future. Such was the Incarnation, such was the German 
Reformation of the sixteenth century, and such are the 
closing years of the nineteenth century, second in impor- 
tance to thait only which must always remain first; viz., 
the birth of Christ. 

Many are not aware that we are living in extraordinary 
times. Few suppose that these years of peaceful pros- 
perity, in which we are quietly developing a continent, 
are the pivot on which is turning the nation's future. 
And fewer still imagine that the destinies of mankind, 
for centuries to come, can be seriously affected, much less 
determined, by the men of this generation in the United 
States. But no generation appreciates its own place in 
history. Several years ago Professor Austin Phelps 
said: "Five hundred years of time in the process of the 
world's salvation may depend on the next twenty years 
of United States history." It is proposed in the follow- 
ing pages to show that such dependence of the world's 
future on this generation in America is not only credible, 
but in the highest degree probable. 

To attribute such importance to the present hour may 



16 THE TIME FACTOR IK THE PROBLEM. 

strike one who has given little or no study to the subject 
as quite extravagant. It is easy to see how a great bat- 
tle may in a day prove decisive of a nation's future. A 
political revolution or a diplomatic act in some great cri- 
sis may cut the thread of destiny; but how is it possible 
that a few years of national growth, in time of peace, 
may be thus fateful? Great civilizations have been the 
product of ages. Their character is slowly developed, 
and changes therein are slowly wrought. What are 
twenty years in a nation's growth, that they should be 
so big with destiny? 

It must not be forgotten that the pulse and the pace of 
the world have been marvelously quickened during the 
nineteenth century. Much as we boast its achievements, 
not every one appreciates how large a proportion of the 
world's progress in civilization has been made since the 
application of steam to travel, commerce, manufactures, 
and printing. At the beginning of this century there 
was very little travel. Men lived in isolated communi- 
ties. Mutually ignorant, they naturally were mu- 
tually suspicious. In English villages a stranger was an 
enemy. Under such conditions there could be little ex- 
change of ideas and less of commodities. Buxton says : 
* ' Intercourse is the soul of progress. " The impetus given 
to intercommunication of every sort by the application 
of steam was the beginning of a new life in the world. 
Crompton's spinning mule was invented in 1775 ; Cart- 
wright's power-loom in 1787; and Whitney's cotton-gin 
in 1793 ; but they did not come into common use until 
the nineteenth century. At the outbreak of the Revolu- 
tionary War there were in use in English and American 
homes the same primitive means by which the world's 
wool and flax had been reduced to yarn for thousands 
of years ; the same rude contrivance used in ancient My- 
cenae and Troy by Homer's heroines. There are men 
alive to-day, whose mothers, like Solomon's virtuous 
woman, laid their hands to the spindle and distaff, and 
knew no other way. William Pairbairn, an eminent 
mechanic, states that " in the beginning of the century 



THE TIME FACTOR IIT THE PROBLEM. 17 

the human hand perforraed all the work that was done, 
and performed it badly." Methods of travel and com- 
munication were as primitive as those of manufacture. 
' ' Toward the close of the eighteenth century Lord Camp- 
bell accomplished the journey from Edinburgh to Lon- 
don in three days and three nights. But judicious friends 
warned him of the dangers of this enterprise, and told 
him that several persons who had been so rash as to at- 
tempt it had actually died from the mere rapidity of the 
motion. 1 " In August, 1888, the same journey was made 
by the Great Northern route (393 miles) in seven hours 
and thirty-two minutes. And that year the railways of 
Great Britain conveyed upwards of 742,000,000 passen- 
gers. ^ It took Dr. Atkinson eight months to go from 
New England to Oregon in 1847. When he returned the 
journey occupied six days. When the battle of Water- 
loo was fought (1815) all haste delivered the thrilling dis- 
patches in London three days later. The news of the 
bombardment of Alexandria (1882) was received in the 
English capital a few minutes after the first shell was 
thrown. 

Any one as old as the nineteenth century has seen a 
very large proportion of all the progress in civilization 
made by the race. When seven years old he might have 
seen Fulton's steamboat on her trial trip up the Hudson. ■ 
Until twenty years of age he could not have f oimd in all 
the world an iron plow. At thirty he might have trav- 
eled on the first railway passenger train. In 1889 the 
w<5rld had 359,071 miles of railway.^ For the first thirty- 
three years of his life he had to rely on the tinder-box 
for fire. He was thirty-eight when steam communica- 
tion between Europe and America was established. He 
had arrived at middle life (forty -four) when the first tele- 
gram was sent. Forty-three years later the world had 
780,433 miles of telegraph lines, and the number of mes- 



1 Mackenzie's History of the Nineteenth Century. 

2 The Statesman's Year-Book, 1890. 

3 The World Almanac, 1890. 



18 THE TIME FACTOR IN" THE PROBLEM. 

sages annually transmitted is estimated at 300,000,000.^ 
Our century has been distinguished by a rising flood of 
inventions. The English government issued more pat- 
ents during the twenty years succeeding 1850 than dur- 
ing the two hundred and fifty years preceding. 

But this has not been simply a mechanical era of 
marvelous material progress. With the exception of as- 
tronomy, modern science, as we now know it, is almost 
wholly the creation of the nineteenth century. In this 
century, too, have the glorious fruits of modern mis- 
sions all been gathered. Another evidence of progress 
which, if less obvious than material results, is more con- 
clusive, is found in the great ideas which have become 
the fixed possession of men within the past hundred 
years. Among them is that of individual liberty, which 
is radically different from the ancient conception of 
freedom that lay at the foundation of the Greek and Ro- 
man republics, and later, of the free cities of Italy. 
Theirs was a liberty of class, or clan, or nation, not of 
the individual; he existed for the government. The 
idea that the government exists for the individual is 
modern. 

From this idea of individual liberty follows logically 
the abolition of slavery. At the close of the eighteenth 
century slavery existed almost everywhere — in Russia, 
Hungary, Prussia, Austria, Scotland, in the British, 
French, and Spanish colonies, and in North and South 
America. It is said that during the first seven years of 
this century English ships conveyed across the Atlantic 
280,000 Africans, one-half of whom perished amid the 
horrors of the "middle passage," or soon after landing. 
But this century has seen slavery practically destroyed 
in all Christendom. 

Another idea, which, like that of individual liberty, 
finds its root in the teachings of Christ, and has grown 
up slowly through the ages to blossom in our own, is 
that of honor to womanhood, whose fruitage is woman's 

J The World Almanac, 1890. 



THE TIME FACTOR IK THE PROBLEM. 19 

elevation. Early in this century it was not very un- 
common for an Englishman to sell his wife into servi- 
tude. "A gentleman in this country, in 1815, having 
access to not a very large number of English sources of 
information, found, in a single year, thirty-nine in- 
stances of wives exposed to public sale, like cattle, at 
Smithfield." ^ The amazement or incredulity with which 
such a statement is received by this generation is the 
best comment on it. 

Another striking evidence of progress is found in the 
enhanced valuation of human life, which has served to 
humanize law and mitigate "man's inhumanity toman." 
At the beginning of this century nothing was cheaper 
than human life. In the eye of English law the life of a 
rabbit was worth more than that of a man ; for even an 
attempt upon the former cost the sacrifice of the latter. 
The law recognized two hundred and twenty -three cap- 
ital offences. " If a man injured Westminster Bridge, 
he was hanged. If he appeared disguised on a public 
road, he was hanged. If he cut down young trees ; if he 
shot at rabbits ; if he stole property valued at five shil- 
lings ; if he stole anything at all from a bleach-field ; if 
he wrote a threatening letter to extort money ; if he 
returned prematurely from transportation — for any of 
these offences he was immediately hanged." "In 1816 
there were at one time (in England) fifty -eight persons 
under sentence of death. One of these was a child ten, 
years old."^ '' 

Space does not suffer even the mention of other noble 
ideas, the growth of which has enriched our civilization 
and elevated man. Our glance at the condition, four- 



1 Dorchester's Problem of Religious Progress, p. 219. The New Monthly 
Magazine, for September, 1814, contains the following: " Shropshire.— A 
well-looking woman, wife of John Hall, to whom she had been married 
only one month, was brought by him in a halter, and sold by auction, in the 
market, for two and sixpence, with the addition of sixpence for the rope 
with which she was led. In this sale the customary market fees were 
charged — toll, one penny; pitching, three pence." 

2 Mackenzie's History of the Nineteenth Century. 



20 THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PROBLEM. 

score years ago, of the most enlightened of the nations, 
hasty as it has been, suffices to remind us of the amaz- 
ing changes which have taken place within a few years ; 
and to show that if we reckon time by its results, twenty 
years of this century may out-measure a millennium of 
olden time. 

As the traveler in Asia follows the sun westward 
around the world, he finds life growing ever more in- 
tense and time more potent. 

" Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." 

And to carry the comparison between the East and the 
West a degree further, permit me to quote an intelligent 
^ Englishman who is a competent witness; viz., Mr. Jo- 
\ seph Hatton, who says : ' ' Ten years in the history of 
I America is half a century of European progress. Ten 
1 years ago the manufactures of America were too insig- 
I nificant for consideration in the Old World. To-day 
/ England herself is successfully rivaled by American 
productions in her own markets." ^ But the comparison 
does not end here. Ten years in the New West are, in 
their results, fully equal to half a century east of the 
Mississippi. There is there a tremendous rush of events 
which is startling, even in the nineteentii century. 
That western world in its progress is gathering mo- 
mentum like a falling body. Vast regions have been 
settled before, but never before under the mighty whip 
and spur of electricity and steam. Referring to the 
development of the West, the London Times remarks: 
' ' Unquestionably, this is the most important fact in 
contemporary history. It is a new fact; it cannot be 
compared with any cognate phenomenon in the past." 
And, as it is without a precedent, so it will remain with 
out a parallel, for there are no more New Worlds. 

» To-day in America, 1881. 



CHAPTER II. 

NATIONAL RESOURCES. 

It is necessary to the argument to show that the 
United States is capable of sustaining a vast population. 

The fathers on Massachusetts Bay once decided that 
population was never likely to be very dense west of 
Newton (a suburb of Boston), and the founders of Lynn, 
after exploring ten or fifteen miles, doubted whether 
the country was good for anything farther west than 
that. Until recent times, only less inadequate has been 
the popular conception of the trans-Missouri region and 
the millions destined to inhabit it. Of late years, home 
missionary writers and speakers have tried to astonish 
us into some appreciation of our national domain. Yet 
it may well be doubted whether even he who has pon- 
dered most upon its magnitude has a " realizing sense" 
of it. Though astonishing comparisons have ceased to 
astonish, I know of no means more effective or more 
just by which to present our physical basis of empire. 

What, then, should we say of a republic of eighteen 
states, each as large as Spain; or one of thirty one 
states, each as large as Italy; or one of sixty states, 
each as large as England and Wales? What a confed- 
eration of nations? Take five of the six first-class 
powers of Europe, Great Britain and Ireland, France, 
Germany, Austria, and Italy ; then add Spain, Portugal, 
Switzerland, Denmark, and Greece. Let some greater 
than Napoleon weld them into one mighty empire, and 
you could lay it all down in the United States west of 
the Hudson River, once, and again, and again — three 
times. Well may Mr. Gladstone say that we have ' ' a 
natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever 



NATIONAL RESOURCES. 23 

established by man; " and well may the English premier 
add : ' ' And the distinction between continuous empire 
and empire severed and dispersed over sea is vital." ^ 
With the exception of Alaska our territory is compact, 
and though so vast, is unified by railways and an un^ 
equaled system of rivers and lakes. The latter, occupy- j 
ing a larger area than Grreat Britain and Ireland, are I 
said to contain nearly one-half of all the fresh water f 
on the globe. We are told that east of the Rocky 
Mountains we have a river-flow of more than 40,000 j 
miles (i.e., 80,000 miles of river-bank), counting no I 
stream less than a hundred miles in length ; while Eu- 
rope in a larger space has but 17,000 miles. It is esti- 
mated ^ that the Mississippi, with its affluents, affords 
35,000 miles of navigation. A steamboat may pass up 
the Mississippi and Missouri 3,900 miles from the Gulf 
— "as far as from New York to Constantinople.''^ 
Thus a "vast system of natural canals " carries our sea- 
board into the very heart of the continent. 

But what of the resources of this great empire which 
makes so brave a display on the map ? Alaska is capa- 
ble of producing great wealth, but not including this 
territory, the area of the United States, according to the 
census of 1880, is 2,970,000 square miles. According to 
the smallest estimate I have ever seen (and doubtless too I 
small), we have 1,500,000 square miles of arable land. \ 
China proper, which, according to the latest estimates, ■ 
supports a population of 383,000,000,* has an area of 4 
1,297,999^ square miles, or considerably less than one- / 
half of ours not including Alaska. The Chinese are ■ 
essentially an agricultural people. This vast population, 
therefore, draws nearly all of its support from the soil. 
The mountains of China occupy an area of more than 
300,000 square miles, and some of her plains are barren. 

» Kin Beyond the Sea. 

2 Encyclopedia Britannica. 

3 Dr. Goodell. 

4 The Statesman's Year-Book, 1890. 

5 Ibid. 



^4 KATIOi^AL EESOUKCES. 

It would seem, then, that our arable lands, taking the 
lowest estimate, are in excess of those of China, by some 
hundreds of thousands of square miles. The fact, there- 
fore, that Chinese agriculture feeds hundreds of millions 
ought, certainly, to be suggestive to Americans. 

The area of the United States, excluding Alaska, is 
equal to that of Great Britain and Ireland, Norway, 
;, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, 
\ France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, and 
I European Turkey, together with that of Palestine, 
Japan and China proper (see map). These countries 
have a population of nearly or quite 650,000,000, and 
their aggregate resources are probalbly n'ot equal to those 
of the United States. The crops of 1879, after feeding 
our 50,000,000 inhabitants in 1880, furnished more than 
283,000,000 bushels of grain for export. The corn, wheat, 
oats, barley, rye, buckwheat and potatoes — that is, the 
food crops, were that year produced on 105,097,750 acres, 
or 164,215 square miles. But that is less than one-ninth 
of the smallest estimate of our arable lands. If, there- 
fore, it were all brought under the plow, it would feed 
450,000,000 and afford 2,554,000,000 bushels of grain for 
export. But this is not all. So excellent an authority 
£^ Mr. Edward Atkinson says that where we now sup- 
/port 50,000,000 people, "one hundred million could be 
( sustained without increasing the area of a single farm, 
\ or adding one to their number, by merely bringing our 
product up to our average standard of reasonably good 
agriculture; and then there might remain for export 
twice the quantity we now send abroad to feed the hungry 
in foreign lands." If this be true (and it will hardly be 
questioned by any one widely acquainted with our waste- 
ful American farming), 1,500,000 square miles of culti- 
vated land — less than one-half of our entire area this 
side of Alaska — are capable of feeding a population of 
900,000,000, and of producing an excess of 5,100,000,000 
bushels of grain for exportation ; or, if the crops were all 
consumed at home, it would feed a population one-eighth 
larger ; viz. , 1, 012, 000, 000. This corresponds very nearly 



iq-ATIONAL EESOURCES. 25 

with results obtained by an entirely different process 
from data afforded by the best scientific authority. i It 
need not, therefore, make a very severe draught on 
credulity to say that our agricultural resources, if fully 
developed^ would sustain a thousand million souls. 

But we have wonderful wealth under the soil as well 
as in it. From 1870 to 1880 we produced $746,613,793 of 
the precious metals, and during the nine succeeding 
years, $735,377,000; while the entire product from 1849 
to 1889, inclusive, was $2,730, 077, 152. ^ The United States ! 
now raises one-half the gold and silver of the world's | 
supply. Iron ore is to-day mined in twenty-three of our 
states. A number of them could singly supply the 
world's demand. Our coal measures are simply inex- 
haustible. English coal-pits, already deep, are being 
deepened, so that the cost of coal-mining in Great 
Britain is presumably increasing, while we have coal 
enough near the surface to supply us for centuries. 
When storing away the fuel for the ages, God knew the 
place and work to which he had appointed us, and gave 
to us twenty times as much of this concrete power as to 
all the peoples of Europe. Among the nations, ours is 
the youngest — the Benjamin — and Benjamin-like we 
have received a five-fold portion. Surely ' ' He hath not 
dealt so with any people." Our mineral products are of 
unequaled richness and variety. The remarkable in- 
crease from 1870 to 1880 ^ placed us at the head of the 
nations. In 1880 our mining industries exceeded those of 
Great Britain three per cent. , and were greater than those 
of all continental Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, 
Mexico, and the British Colonies collectively; while 
in 1888, the total mineral product of the United Kingdom 



1 See Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 1, p. 717. 

2 From Official Reports by the Director of the United States Mint. 

3 Mulhall. 

1870. 1880. Increase. 

Iron ore, tons 4,500,000 9,500,000 110 per cent. 

Copper " 12,700 20,300 60 '• 

Coal " 33,000,000 55,000,000 66 " 

Petroleum, gallons 42,000,000 860,000,000 20-fold. 



26 NATIONAL RESOURCES. 

was $289,601,3851 and that of the United States was 
$591,172,795 2; and as yet, we have hardly begun to de- 
velop these resources. Thousands of square miles of 
mineral wealth lie wholly untouched. 

Let us glance at our manufactures, present and pro" 
spective. Our first great advantage is found in our 
superabounding coal. Our second lies in the fact that 
we have our raw material at hand. England must go at 
least 3,000 miles for every cotton boll she spins; we raise 
our own. And mills are now being built in the South 
which manufacture the cotton where it is grown. We 
produce also the wool, the woods, the hides, the metals 
of every sort, all that is required for nearly every va- 
riety of manufacture. The remaining advantage which 
crowns our opportunity is the quality of our labor; 
American operatives being, as a class, the most ingen- 
ious and intelligent in the world. Inventiveness has 
come to be a national trait. The United States Govern- 
ment issues four times as many patents as the English. 
From the Patent Office in Washington there were issued, 
during 1889, 21,518 patents. At the International Elec- 
trical Exposition in Paris, a few years ago, five gold 
medals were given for the greatest inventions or dis- 
coveries, all of which came to the United States. The 
Mechanical World, of London, says that the United 
States has the best machinery and tools in the world ; 
and Mr. Lourdelot, who was sent over here a few years 
since by the French Minister of Commerce, says that the 
superiority of tools used here, and the attention to de- 
tails too often neglected in Europe, are elements of dan- 
ger to European industries. Herbert Spencer testifies 
that, * ' beyond question, in respect of mechanical appli- 
ances, the Americans are ahead of all nations." ^ The 
fact of superior tools would alone give us no small ad- 



» The Statesman's Year-Book, 1890. 

2 The World Almanac, 1890. 

3 For much additional and weighty testimony to the same point, see Re- 
port of Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor for 1879, pp. xiii. and 
xiv. 



NATIOISTAL EESOURCES. 27 

vantage, but the possession of the best machinery im- 
plies much more; viz., that we have also the best 
mechanics in the world. 

In close competition, any one of the three advantages 
enumerated ought to insure supremacy, provided labor 
were as cheap here as in Europe. The coincidence, then, 
of these three great essentials of manufactures, each in 
such signal measure as to constitute together a triple ad- 
vantage, ought to offset the difference in the price of 
labor, and with favorable legislation ultimately deliver 
over to us the markets of the world. Already have we 
won the first rank as a manufacturing people, our prod- 
ucts in 1880 having exceeded even those of Great Britain 
by $629,000,000. So soon is Mr. Gladstone's prophecy, 
uttered a few years ago, finding its fulfillment. Speak- 
ing of the United States, he said: "She will probably 
become what we are now, the head servant in the great 
household of the world, the employer of all employed, 
because her service will be the most and ablest." And 
it is interesting to note not only our position, but our 
rate of progress. While the manufactures of France, 
from 1870 to 1880, increased $222,640,000, those of 
Germany $416,240,000, and those of Great Britain 
$561,440,000, those of the United States increased $997,- 
040,000.1 Moreover, the marked advantages which we 
now enjoy are to be enhanced. While England's coal is 
growing dearer, ours will be growing cheaper, and the 
development of our vast resources will greatly increase, 
and hence cheapen, raw materials. 

And while our manufactures are growing, our markets 
are to be greatly extended. Steam and electricity have 
mightily compressed the earth. The elbows of the na- 
tions touch. Isolation— the mother of barbarism— is 
becoming impossible. The mysteries of Africa are being 
laid open, the pulse of her commerce is beginning to 
beat. South America is being quickened, and the dry 



I Our total agricultural products for 1880 were $2,541,000,000; our manufact- 
ures for the same year were $4,297, 920,000.— Mulhall. 



28 KATI02!^AL KESOURCES. 

bones of Asia are moving ; the warm breath of the Nine- 
teenth Century is breathing a living soul under her ribs 
of death. The world is to be Christianized and civilized. 
There are about 1,000,000,000 of the world's inhabitants 
who do not enjoy a Christian civilization. Two hundred 
millions of these are to be lifted out of savagery. Much 
has been accomplished in this direction during the past 
seventy -five years, but much more will be done during 
the next fifty. And what is the process of civilizing but 
the creating of more and higher wants'i Commerce fol- 
lows the missionary. Five hundred American plows 
went to the native Christians of Natal in one year. The 
millions of Africa and Asia are some day to have the 
wants of a Christian civilization. The beginnings of 
life in India demand $12,000,000 worth of iron manufact- 
ures, and $100,000,000 worth of cotton goods in a single 
year. During the last thirty years her foreign trade has 
nearly quadrupled. What will be the wants of Asia a 
century hence? A Christian civilization performs the 
miracle of the loaves and fishes, and feeds its thousands 
in a desert. It multiplies populations. A thousand civ- 
ilized men thrive where a hundred savages starved. 
What, then, will be the population and what the wants 
of Africa, a century hence? And with these vast conti- 
nents added to our market, with our natural advantages 
fully realized, what is to prevent the United States from 
becoming the mighty workshop of the world, and our 
people "the hands of mankind? " 

If it is not unreasonable to believe that our agricul- 
tural resources alone, when fully developed, are capable 
of feeding 1,000,000,000, then surely, with our agricul- 
tural and mining and manufacturing industries all fully 
developed, the United States can sustain and enrich such 
a population. Truly has Matthew Arnold said: " Amer- 
ica holds the future." 



Wealth-producing land west of the Mississippi, not 
including Alaska or mineral lands, 1,830,000 square 
miles. 



Wealth-producing land, including mineral lands, east 
of the Mississippi, 800,000 square miles. 



CHAPTER III. 

WESTERN SUPREMACY. 

"I NEVER felt as if I were out of doors before!" ex- 
claimed a New Englander, as he stepped off the cars 
west of the Mississippi, for the first time. 

The West is characterized by largeness. Mountains, 
rivers, railways, ranches, herds, crops, business trans- 
actions, ideas ; even men's virtues and vices are cyclopean. 
All seem to have taken a touch of vastness from the 
mighty horizon. "Western stories are on the same large 
scale, so large, indeed, that it often takes a dozen east- 
ern men to] believe one' of them. They have a secret 
suspicion that even the best attested are inflated exag- 



30 WESTERN^ SUPREMACY. 

gerations, which, pricked by investigation, would burst, 
leaving behind a very small residuum of fact. It will be 
necessary, therefore, to glance rapidly at the resources 
of the West, in order to show that it will eventually 
dominate the East. And by "the West" I mean that 
portion of the country lying west of the Mississippi, not 
including Alaska, unless so specified ; for, though that 
territory has vast resources which will some day add 
much to our wealth, the national destiny is to be settled 
this side of Alaska. 

Of the twenty-two states and territories west of the 
Mississippi only three are as small as all New England. 
Montana would stretch from Boston on the east to Cleve- 
land on the west, and extend far enough south to include 
Eichmond, Va. Idaho, if laid down in the East, would 
touch Toronto, Can., on the north, and Raleigh, N. C, 
on the south, while its southern boundary line is long 
enough to stretch from Washington City to Columbus, 
O. ; and California, if on our Atlantic seaboard, would 
extend from the southern line of Massachusetts to the 
lower part of South Carolina ; or, in Europe, it would ex- 
tend from London across France and well into Spain. 
I New Mexico is larger than the United Kingdom of Great 
I Britain and Ireland. The greatest measurement of 
I Texas is nearly equal to the distance from New Orleans 
to Chicago, or from Chicago to Boston. Lay Texas on 
the face of Europe, and this giant, with his head resting 
on the mountains of Norway (directly east of the Orkney 
Islands), with one palm covering London, the other 
Warsaw, would stretch himself down across the king- 
•dom of Denmark, across the empires of Germany and 
Austria, across Northern Italy, and lave his feet in the 
Mediterranean. The two Dakotas might be carved 
into a half-dozen kingdoms of Greece ; or, if they were 
divided into twenty-six equal counties, we might lay 
down the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel in each. 
I Place the 50,000,000 inhabitants of the United States in 
1 1880 all in Texas, and the population would not be as 
/ dense as that of Germany. Put them in the Dakotas, and 



WESTERN" SUPREMACY. 31 

the population would not be as dense as that of England 
and Wales. Place them in New Mexico, and the density 
of population would not be as great as that of Belgium. 
Those 50,000,000 might all have been comfortably sus- 
tained in Texas. After allowing, say 50,000 square miles 
for "desert," Texas could have produced all "our food 
crops in 1879— grown, as we have seen, on 164,215 square 
miles of land— could have raised the world's supply of 
cotton, 12,000,000 bales, at one bale to the acre, on 19,000 
square miles, and then have had remaining, for a cattle 
range, a territory larger than the State of New York. 
Place the population of the United States in 1890 all in 
Texas, and it would not be as dense as that of Italy ; and 
if it were as crowded as England, this one state would 
contain 129,000,000 souls. 

Accounting all of Minnesota and Louisiana west of the 
Mississippi, for convenience, we have, according to the 
census of 1880,^ 2,115,135 square miles in the West, and 
854,865 in the East. That is, for every acre east of the 
Mississippi we have nearly two and a half west of it. But 
what of the " Great American Desert," which occupied 
so much space on the map a generation ago? It is 
nomadic and elusive ; it recedes before advancing civili- 
zation like the Indian and buffalo which once roamed it. 
There are extensive regions, which, because of rocks or 
lava-beds or alkali or altitude or lack of rain, are unfit 
for the plow ; but they afford much of the finest grazing 
country in the world, much valuable timber, and min- 
eral wealth which is enormous. Useless land, though 
much in the aggregate, is far less than is commonly sup- 
posed, and in comparison with wealth-producing lands 
is almost insignificant. The vast region east of the 
Rocky Mountains, though once the home of the " Great 
American Desert," really contains very little useless 
land. We have all heard of the " Bad Lands " of theDa- 
kotas, but they comprise only about 75,000 acres out of 



1 The areas of the states given in the Ninth Census have been recomputed 
for the Tenth, 



32 WESTEEN SUPREMACY. 

94,528,000 in the two states, and even these lands, are an 
excellent stock-range. Mr. E. V. Smalley says': "Cat- 
tle come out of the Bad Lands in the spring as fat as 
though they had been stall-fed all winter. " The United 
States Surveyor-General says: "The proportion of waste 
land in the territory (Dakota), owing to the absence of 
swamps, mountain ranges, overflowed and sandy tracts, 
is less than in any other state or territory in the Union." 
There are 20,000 square miles of " Bad Lands " in North- 
western Nebraska, rich in wonderful fossils, but econom- 
ically worthless. It is often said that the Kansas 
lands near the Colorado border are alkaline ; but Profes- 
sor Mudge, State Geologist, says that, in fifteen years of 
exploration, he has found but two springs containing 
alkalies, and has never seen ten acres of land in one 
place which has been injured by it. There is perhaps as 
little waste land in Kansas as in Illinois. The "Staked 
Plain " of Texas is sometimes spoken of as a desert; but 
a Texan writer, who has lived there for years, says of it : 
" While it is true that this vast territory which we are 
describing is mainly a grazing country, it is also true 
that it abounds in fertile valleys and rich locations of 
large extent, which are as well watered and as fertile as 
any in the nation." That portion of the "Staked Plain " 
which is mountainous is rich in minerals. 

Driven from the plains east of the Eocky Mountains, 
the " Great American Desert" seems to have become a 
fugitive and vagabond on the face of the earth. It 
was located for a time by the map makers in Utah, but 
being persecuted there, it fled to Arizona, Nevada and 
Southern California. I do not mean to imply that there 
are no waste lands in Utah. Portions of the territory 
are as worthless as some of its people. There are some 
deserts, one west of the Great Salt Lake, which contains 
several thousand square miles; but the Surveyor-Gen- 
eral of the Territory says: "Notwithstanding the opin- 
ion of many who deem our lands 'arid, desert, and 

» The Century for August, 1882. 



WESTERN" SUPBEMACY. 33 

worthless,' these same lands, under proper tillage, pro- 
duce forty to fifty bushels of wheat, seventy to eighty 
bushels of oats and barley, from two hundred to four 
hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre, and fruits and 
vegetables equal to any other state or territory in quan- 
tity and quality." ^ There are vast tracts which cannot 
be irrigated, but even such lands are not necessarily 
without agricultural value. Arizona has been consid- 
ered a waste, and undoubtedly much land there is arid 
and irredeemable ; but, on the other hand, there is much 
also which is wealth-producing. Gen. J. C. Fremont, 
who, as Governor of the Territory for several years, had 
exceptional facilities for gaining information, in his 
oflScial report in 1878, said: "So far as my present 
knowledge goes, the grazing and farming lands com- 
prehend an area equal to that of the State of New York." 
And a writer in Harper'' s Magazine for March, 1883, 
says : "It is estimated by competent authority that, 
with irrigation, thirty-seven per cent, can be re- 
deemed for agriculture, and sixty per cent, for pastur- 
age." 2 Certain it is that when the Spaniards first visited 
the territory, in 1526, they found ruins of cities and ir- 
rigating canals, which indicated that it was once densely 
populated by a civilized race which subsisted by agricul- 
ture. 

There is more barren land in Nevada than in any 
other state or territory of the West. The wealth of the 
state is not agricultural or pastoral, but mineral. Never- 
theless the Surveyor-General of the State says : "In our 
sage-brush lands, alfalfa, the cereals, and all vegetables 
flourish in profusion where water can be obtained, and 
the state is speedily becoming one of the great stock- 
raising states of the Union." Below the Grand Canon 



^A resident of Utah writes me that he has never heard of more than 
twenty-eight bushels of wheat or forty-five of oats to the acre. 

3 From all the information I can gather, this latter estimate seems to me 
too large. In my computation of the valuable lands of the West, page 35, I 
have called 26,700 square miles in Arizona, nearly one quarter of the terri- 
tory, worthless. 



34 WESTERN SUPREMACY. 

of the Colorado, with Nevada and Cahfornia on the west 
and Arizona on the east, is a region of great aridity. 
Here date-palms, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, figs, 
sugar and cotton flourish where water can be applied, 
and "ultimately a region of country can be irrigated 
larger than was ever cultivated along the Nile, and all 
the products of Egj^pt will flourish therein." i 

The area in which occur, here and there, most of the 
worthless lands of the West, is pyramidal in shape, the 
base extending along the Mexican line into Texas, and 
the apex being found in the northern part of Idaho. 
That is, the proportion of useless lands»decreases as you 
go north, until it seems to disappear entirely before 
reaching the Northern Pacific Eailway. Mr. E. V. 
Smalley, who, in the summer of 1882, traveled the line 
of that road before its completion, writes ^ : " The whole 
country traversed through the northern tier of terri- 
tories, from Eastern Dakota to Washington, is a habit- 
able region. For the entire distance every square mile 
of the country is valuable either for farming, stock-rais- 
ing, or timber-cutting. There is absolutely no waste land 
between the well-settled region of Dakota and the new 
wheat region of Washington Territory. Even on the 
tops of the Eocky Mountains there is good pasturage ; 
and the vast timber belt enveloping Clark's Fork and 
Lake Pend d'Oreille, and the ranges of the Cabinet and 
Coeur d'Alene Mountains is more valuable than an 
equal extent of arable land." 

Much of the Rocky Mountain region is still unsur- 
veyed. In the absence of exact knowledge, therefore, 
we must rely on the estimates of Surveyor-Generals, 
Governors, and others who have had opportunities to 
form intelligent opinions concerning the available lands 
of the West. In some cases official reports of surveys 
have afforded accurate information ; but in most it has 



* J. W, Powell, Director of the U. S. Geologica Survey, in The Century 
for March, 1890. 
2 The Century Magazine for October, 1882. 



WESTERN" SUPREMACY. 35 

been necessary to rely on estimates which pretend to be 
only approximately correct. I believe they are temper- 
ate. According to these estimates, the region west of 
the Mississippi embraces 785,000 square miles of arable 
lands, 645,000 of grazing lands, 400,000 of timber lands, 
and 285,000 square miles which are useless, except so 
far as they are mineral lands. In weighing these figures 
several considerations should be borne in mind. 

1, Generally speaking, those best acquainted with the 
West make the largest estimates of its resources and 
have the most faith in its future. 

2, Land often appears worthless which experiment 
proves to be fertile. For instance, the ' ' Great Columbia 
Plains " of Eastern Washington. The- soil, which varies 
from one foot to twenty feet in depth, is, except in the 
bottom lands, a very light-colored loam, containing an 
unusually large percentage of alkalies and fixed acids. 
A few years ago, sowing wheat on that soil would have 
been deemed throwing it away; but the experiment 
resulted in a revelation; viz., that these 14,000,000 acres 
of peculiar soil are probably the best wheat fields in all 
the world. Other illustrations equally striking might be 
given. Rev. A. Blanchard, who is well acqusLinted with 
East Wyoming and Colorado, writes: " Nothing is more 
surprising than the material for supporting a population 
which continues to be developed in all this region of 
m.ountain and plain, which, twenty years ago, was con- 
sidered an inhospitable desert, capable of supporting 
nothing but Indians." 

3, Barren lands are often rendered fruitful. Fre- 
quently all that a sterile soil needs is treatment with 
some mineral which Nature has deposited near by ; and 
water makes most of our western deserts blossom as the 
rose. In 1882, twelve Artesian wells were sunk in Tulare 
County, California, with astonishing results. They 
were found to flow from 200,000 to 1,500,000 gallons 
daily ; and where once were barren plains, the fields 
are a succession of vineyards, orchards, and wheat 
fields. Since then many of these wells have been 



36 WESTERN^ SUPREMACY. 

sunk in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. 
Ultimately mountain torrents will be utilized for irri- 
gation by means of great reservoirs and canals. 
Already more than 6,000,000 acres have been redeemed 
by such means and are now under cultivation. Major 
J. W. Powell, Director of the U. S. Geological Survey, 
has been engaged for more than twenty years in investi- 
gating the resources of the West and has commanded 
the best facilities for acquiring scientific knowledge of 
that region. This highest authority says : i "Arid lands 
are not lands of famine, and the sunny sky is not a 
firmament of devastation. Conquered rivers are better 
servants than wild clouds. The valleys and plains of 
the far West have all the elements of fertility that soil 
can have Abundant water and abundant sun- 
shine are the chief conditions for vigorous plant growth, 
and that agriculture is the most successful which best 
secures these twin primal conditions; and they are 
obtained in the highest degree in lands watered by 
streams and domed by clear skies. For these reasons 
the arid lands are more productive under high cultiva- 
tion than humid lands. The wheat fields of the 
desert, the corn fields, the vineyards, the orchards and 
the gardens of the far West far surpass those of the 

East in luxuriance and productiveness The arid 

lands of the West .... are the best agricultural 
lands of the continent." 

The total area of arid lands in the United States is 
1,331,151 square miles, of which some 258,000 square 
miles are timbered lands. Much of the arid region is 
rich in minerals and much of it affords fine pasturage, 
while about 120,000,000 acres are capable of being 
redeemed for agriculture by irrigation. Major Powell 
says, " It has been fully demonstrated that the redemp- 
tion of these lands is profitable to capital and labor." 
When the waters are stored in the mountain lakes, and 
the canals are constructed to carry them to the lands 

» The Century for March, 1890. 



WESTEKK SUPREMACY. 37 

below, a system of powers will be developed unparalleled 
in the history of the world. Here, then, factories can be 
established, and the rivers be made to do the work of 
fertilization, and the violence of mountain torrents can 
be transformed into electricity to illumine the villages, 
towns, and cities of all that land."' 

It should be remarked that the rainfall seems to be 
increasing with the cultivation of the soil. And it is 
worthy of note that what rain there is usually falls in 
those months when it is most needed, and that there is 
little or none during harvest. 

4. The arable lands in the Eocky Mountains are 
mainly in valleys, which, like basins, have gathered the 
detritus of the mountains for ages. The soil is th'ere- 
fore very deep and strong, yielding much more than 
the same area in the East; and in the Southwest two 
crops a year from the same soil are very common, so 
that this land is equal to twice or three times the same 
area in the East. "Experiments in California, Nevada, 
Colorado, Utah, Arizona and other irrigating countries, 
show that eighty acres of irrigated land properly culti- 
vated far exceed in productive capacity 160 acres 
watered by rainfall. "^ 

5. The above estimate of arable lands in the West does 
not include the timber lands, a large proportion of which 
is of the finest quality. Of the 400,000 square miles of 
timber, 45,000 are in Texas, 26,000 in Arkansas, and 
25,000 in Minnesota. A large proportion of the whole is 
in the Mississippi valley, and a good deal of the remain- 
der is on fine soil, so that it is reasonable to infer that 
100,000 square miles or more of this timber land would 
be arable, "if cleared. Moreover, ! much of the 645,000 
square miles of grazing land will prove to be arable. 
We may, therefore, expect the arable lands of the West 
ultimately to reach 900,000 square miles, and perhaps 
1,000,000. 



1 Maj. J. W. Powell in The Century for April, 1890. 
a Senator W. M. Stewart in The Forum for April, 1889. 



38 WESTERN" SUPREMACY. 

6. A considerable portion of the 854,865 square miles 
east of the Mississippi is not arable. In New England, 
New York and Pennsylvania, there are 94,500 square 
miles of unimproved lands. ^ It is a fair inference that in 
the old states where land has long been in demand, so 
much would not remain unimproved unless generally 
incapable of improvement. Throughout the many 
mountain ranges of the entire Appalachian system, there 
is much waste land and more that is not arable. In the 
absence of any exact data it would seem from the facts 
just given, that there must be not less than 50,000 or 
60,000 square miles of waste land east of the Mississippi, 
and twice as nmch that is not fit for the plow. This 
reduces the arable lands of the East to about 700,000 
square miles as against 785,000 in the West, with the 
probable eventual addition to the latter of one or two 
hundred thousand more. For every acre in the East, 
bad as well as good, there is another in the West capa- 
ble of producing food ; and in addition, a timber area of 
400,000 square miles, not including the magnificent tim- 
ber lands of Alaska, which William H. Seward said 
would one day make that territory the ship-yard of the 
world. And besides all this, the West has grazing lands 
50,000 square miles broader than the total area of all the 
Southern States east of the Mississippi. In 1880 there 
were in the West, 61,211,000 head of live stock, and those 
vast plains are probably capable of sustaining several 
times that number. The West, therefore, has 1,830,000 
square miles of useful land (not including mineral lands) 
against 800,000 in the East, more than twice as much. 

Nor have we finished our inventory of western wealth. 
Its mineral resources are simply inexhaustible. The 
precious metals have been found in most of the states 
and territories of our Western Empire. From the dis- 
covery of gold to June 30, 1881, California produced 



1 New England has 28,468 square miles not in farms, 41,500 unimproved. 
New York " 10,402 " " " " " 29,000 

Pennsylvania " 13,952 " " " " " 24,000 



|1,1'?'0,000,000 of that metal. The annual product is now 
from eighteen to twenty-five millions. From 1863 to 
1880, Idaho produced $90,000,000 of gold and silver, and 
Montana from 1861 to 1879, not less than $162,000,000. 
In twenty years, Nevada produced $448,545,000 of the 
precious metals. The production of Colorado, during 
the twenty-four years preceding 1883, was $167,000,000. 
Her out-put for 1883 was $27,000,000. In wealth-pro- 
ducing power a single rich mine represents a great 
area of arable land. For instance, the Comstock Lode, 
in 1877, produced $37,062,252. Those twelve insignificant 
looking holes in the side of the mountain yielded more 
wealth that year than 3,890,000 acres planted to corn the 
same year. That is, those few square rods on the sur- 
face in Nevada were as large as all the corn fields of 
New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, 
Wisconsin and Minnesota, collectively. Rocky Moun- 
tain wealth, penetrating thousands of feet into the earth, 
compensates for large areas of barren surface. The agri- 
cultural resources of a country do not now as formerly 
determine its possible population. To-day, easy trans- 
portation makes regions populous and wealthy, which 
once were uninhabitable. Even if a blade of grass could 
not be made to grow in all the Rocky Mountain states, 
that region could sustain 100,000,000 souls, provided it 
has sufficient mineral wealth to exchange for the prod- 
uce of the Mississippi valley. Quartz mines have been 
known in the Rockies for years, which could not be 
worked without heavy machinery. The inner chambers 
of God's great granite safes, where the silver and gold 
have been stored for ages to enrich this generation, are 
fastened with time locks, set for the advent of the rail- 
way. The projection of railway systems into the 
mountains will rapidly develop these mines. For the 
year ending May 31, 1880, the United States produced 
55 tons 724 pounds (avoirdupois) of gold, and 1,090 tons 
398 pounds of silver. "These huge figures may be 
better grasped, perhaps, by considering that the gold 
represents five ordinary car loads, while a train of 109 



40 WESTERN SUPEEMACT. 

freight cars of the usual capacity would be required to 
transport the silver, "i The total out-put of the precious 
metals for 1889 was $97,446,000 or nearly $23,000,000 more 
than in 1880. 

But the precious metals constitute only a small part of 
the mineral wealth of the West. It has upwards of 200, - 
000 square miles of coal measure, thirty-eight times the 
area of all the coal fields of Great Britain. Excepting 
Minnesota, coal has been found in every state and terri- 
tory west of the Mississippi. And not one is without 
iron. California has superior ores. The iron of Oregon 
is equal to the very best Swedish and Russian metal. 
Wyoming has immense deposits. The supply of Utah is 
enormous. It is found in some form in every county of 
Missouri. Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob are estimated 
to contain 500,000,000 tons of the finest ore. There are 
great masses of iron in Texas, probably equal in quantity 
and quality to any deposits in the world. Lead is found 
in all the states and territories of the West, except Min- 
nesota, Nebraska, and the Indian Territory. In many 
of them the ores are rich and abundant. The lead-pro- 
ducing area in Missouri is over 5,000 square miles. The 
product of that state in 1877 was over 63,000,000 pounds. 
Nebraska and Kansas alone are without copper. Rich 
ores and native metal abound in what seem inexhausti- 
ble quantities. The deposits of salt are without compu- 
tation. Besides salt springs and lakes which yield great 
quantities, there are beds of unknown depth covering 
thousands of acres. Sulphur also is exceedingly abun- 
dant. In Idaho there is a mountain which is eighty-five 
per cent, pure sulphur. A deposit in Louisiana, equally 
pure, is 112 feet thick. Nevada has borax enough to sup- 
ply mankind. In Wyoming there are lakes in which 
the deposits of sulphate of soda are from ten to fifteen 
feet in thickness, and almost chemically pure. Gypsum 
abounds. Texas has the largest deposits known in the 
world, — " enough to supply the universe for centuries." 

1 Tenth Census. 



WESTERN SUPREMACY. 41 

The Colorado River of Texas cuts its way through moun- 
tains of solid marble. In many parts of the Rocky 
Mountains there are the finest building stones, granite, 
sandstone and marble, of all possible colors and shades, 
without end. It would be tiresome simply to enumerate 
the valuable minerals which swell the undeveloped 
wealth of the West. 

Her unrivaled resources together with the unequaled 
enterprise o£ her citizens are a sure prophecy of superior 
wealth. Already have some of these young states out- 
stripped older sisters at the East, as is seen by the follow- 
ing statement of wealth per caput according to the as- 
sessed valuation of property in 1880 : 

In South Carolina $110 In Kansas $161 

" Illinois 255 " Minnesota 330 

"Vermont 259 " Colorado 331 

"New York 538 "California 674 

From 1880 to 1890 the assessed valuation of property in 
these four states east of the Mississippi increased twenty- 
seven per cent, while that in the four western states in- 
creased one hundred and seven. The aggregate increase 
of the former was $1,008,000,000; that of the latter, 
$1,160,000,000.1 The West is destined to surpass in agricul- 
ture, stock-raising, mining, and eventually, in manufact- 
uring. Already appears the superiority of her climate, 
which Montesquieu declares ' ' is the most powerful of all 
empires, and gives guaranty alone of future develop- 
ment." Every advantage seems to be hers save only 
greater proximity to Europe, and if the East commands 
European commerce, the Golden Gate opens upon Asia, 
and is yet to receive 

" the wealth of Ormus and of Ind," 

and send her argosies to all the ports of the broad Pa- 
cific. 

Beyond a peradventure, the West is to dominate the 
East. With more than twice the room and resources of 
the East, the West will have probably twice the popula- 

' The World Almanac, 1890. 



42 WesteHK suPEE:^iAcY. 

tion and wealth of the East, together with the superior 
power and influence which, under popular government 
accompany them. The West will elect the executive 
and control legislation. When the center of population 
crosses the Mississippi, the West will have a majority 
in the lower House, and sooner or later the partition of 
her great territories, and probably some of the states, 
will give to the West the control of the Senate.^ When 
Texas is as densely peopled as New England, it is hardly 
to be supposed her millions will be content to see the 62,- 
000 square miles east of the Hudson send twelve senators 
to the seat of government, while her territory of 262,000 
sends only two. The West will direct the policy of the 
Government, and by virtue of her preponderating popu- 
lation and influence will determine our national charac- 
ter and, therefore, destiny. 

Since prehistoric times, populations have moved stead- 
ily westward, as De Tocqueville said, "as if driven by 
the mighty hand of God. " And following their migra- 
tions, the course of empire, which Bishop Berkeley sang, 
has westward taken its way. The world's scepter passed 
from Persia to Greece, from Greece to Italy, from Italy 
to Great Britain, and from Great Britain the scepter is 
to-day departing. It is passing onto "Greater Britain," 
to our Mighty West, there to remain, for there is no fur- 
ther West ; beyond is the Orient. Like the star in the 
East which guided the three kings with their treas- 
ures westward until at length it stood still over the 
cradle of the young Christ, so the star of empire, rising 
in the East, has ever beckoned the wealth and power of 
the nations westward, until to-day it stands still over the 



1 The movement of population and of power westward is shown by the cen- 
sus of 1890. If under this census the apportionment for representatives in 
Congress is made so that the total membership of the House remains the 
same plus eight members from the six new states, the states east of the Mis- 
sissippi will lose nine representatives and those west of it will gain nine in 
addition to those from the six new states. That is, the East will be nine 
members weaker and the West seventeen stronger. 



WESTERI!^^ SUPEEMACY. 43 

cradle of the young empire of the West, to which the 
nations are bringing their offerings. 

The West is to-day an infant, but shall one day be a 
giant, in each of whose limbs shall unite the strength of 
many nations. 



Native Population of the U. S. in 1880, 
35,000,000. 



Population Foreign by birth or parentage, 
15,000,000. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 

Political optimism is one of the vices of the American 
people. There is a popular faith that "God takes care 
of children, fools, and the United States." We deem 
ourselves a chosen people, and incline to the belief that 
the Almighty stands pledged to our prosperity. Until 
within a few years probably not one in a hundred of our 
population has ever questioned the security of our 
future. Such optimism is as senseless as pessimism is 
faithless. The one is as foolish as the other is wicked. 

Thoughtful men see perils on our national horizon. 



PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 45 

Our argument is concerned not with all of them, but 
only with those which peculiarly threaten the West. 

America, as the land of promise to all the world, 
is the destination of the most remarkable migration 
of which we have any record. During the last ten 
years we have suffered a peaceful invasion by an army 
more than four times as vast as the estimated number 
of Goths and Vandals that swept over Southern Europe 
and overwhelmed Rome. During the past hundred years 
fifteen million foreigners have made their homes in the 
United States, and three-quarters of them have come 
since 1850, while 5,248,000 have arrived since 1880. A 
study of the causes of this great world movement indi- 
cates that perhaps as yet we have seen only beginnings. 
These controlHng causes are threefold. 1. The attract- 
ing influences of the United States. 3. The expellent 
influences of the Old World. 3. Facihties for travel. 

1. The attracting influences of the United States. We 
have already seen that for every one inhabitant in 1880 
the land is capable of sustaining twenty. This largeness 
of room and opportunity constitutes an urgent invitation 
to the crowded peoples of Europe. The prospect of pro- 
prietorship in the soil is a powerful attraction to the 
European peasant. In England only one person in 
twenty is an owner of land ; in Scotland, one in twenty- 
five ; in Ireland, one in seventy -nine, and the great ma- 
jority of land-holders in Great Britain own less than one 
acre each. More than three-fifths of the United King- 
dom is in the hands of the landlords, who own, each 
one, a thousand acres or more.^ One man rides in a 
straight line a hundred miles on his own estate. An- 
other owns a county extending across Scotland. A 
gentleman in Scotland a few years since, appropriated 
three hundred square miles of land, extending from sea 
to sea, to a deer forest, evicting many families to make 
room for the deer. "Scotland official figures show that 
one-third of the families live in a single room, and more 

1 Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. VIII. p. 223. 



46 PEEILS. — IMMIGRATION. 

than another third in only two rooms." i What must 
free land mean to such a people? 

This, moreover, is the land of plenty. The following 
table, 2 giving the average amount of food annually con- 
sumed per inhabitant, shows how much better the peo- 
ple of the United States are fed than any people of 
Europe. All kinds of grain are included, as what is fed 
to cattle serves ultimately to produce food for the popu- 
lation. Potatoes are estimated as grain, at the rate of 
four bushels to one of wheat. 

Grain, Meat, Grain, Meat, 

bushels, pounds. bushels, pounds. 

France ..24.02 81.88 Austria 13.57 56.03 

Germany 23.71 84.51 Sweden and Norway 12.05 51.10 

Belgium 22.84 57.10 Italy 9.62 20.80 

Great Britain 20.02 119.10 

Russia 17.97 54.05 Europe 17.66 57.50 

Spain 17.68 25.04 United States 40.66 120.00 

John Rae says that in Prussia, nearly one-half of the 
population have to live on an annual income of $105 to 
a family. Is it strange that they look longingly toward 
the United States? 

Immigration rises and falls with our prosperity. A 
financial crisis here operates at once as a check, but 
numbers increase again with the revival of business. 
We shall have, as heretofore, an occasional crash, fol- 
lowed by commercial depression, but it can hardly be 
questioned that the development of our wonderful re- 
sources will insure a high degree of material prosperity 
for many years to come. And the brightening blaze of 
our riches will attract increased immigration. Equal 
rights also and free schools are operative. We expend 
for education nearly six times as much, per caput, as 
Europe. Parents know that their children will have a 
better chance here, and come for their sake. These 
facts are becoming more widely known m other lands. 



1 Henry George in Twilight Club Tracts, p. 37. 

» Mulhall, Balance-Sheet of the World, 1870—1880, p. 39. 



PEEILS. — IMMIGKATIOK. 47 

Every foreigner who comes to us and wins success, as 
most of them do under more favorable conditions, be- 
comes an advertiser of our land; he strongly attracts 
his relatives and friends, and very likely sends them 
money for their passage. Our consul at Frankfort 
writes: "Not less than one-half of the German emi- 
grants to the United States emigrate by the advice and 
assistance of friends residing there." Says Prof. R. 
M. Smith, 1 "The Inman Steamship Company has 3500 
agents in Europe, and an equal number in this country, 
selling prepaid tickets to be sent to friends and relatives 
of persons already here in order to provide them with pas- 
sage." Of course other companies pursue a like policy. 

2. The expellent influences of Europe. Social or polit- 
ical upheavals send new waves of immigration to our 
shores. A glance at the situation shows that the pros- 
pect for the next fifteen or twenty years is not pacific. 

France. The French are fickle. From the Revolution 
down to 1870, no political regime had continued for 
twenty consecutive years. The fact, therefore, that the 
Third Republic has survived this period, which seems to 
constitute the necessary political probation of a French 
government, is a favorable augury of its permanence. 
Boulangism expressed whatever dissatisfaction existed in 
various classes, with the republic ; and its utter collapse 
justifies the hope that the French will enjoy a settled gov- 
ernment for years to come. And if the Republic becomes 
permanent, which now seems likely, it will operate as a 
constant thorn in the sides of European monarchies, by 
stirring up popular discontent. 

Germany. The Revolution of 1848 showed that the 
German people, always lovers of freedom, had grasped 
the principles of civil liberty; but it also showed that 
they had no practical knowledge of self-government. 
During those forty -two succeeding years of increasing 
acquaintance with our free institutions, their love of 
liberty has been growing, but in the science of self-gov- 

1 Efnigratjon and Immigration, p. 46. 



48 PE1ML8. — IMMIGKATIOK. 

ornmout. they have gained no oxperionco. Gormany 
presents the anomaly of a modern industrial civilization 
imder a medianal military government; a people char- 
acterized by a strong love of independence, ruled by an 
emperor who says, "Those who oppose me, I dash to 
pieces." Such a condition can h;u*dly be one of stable 
equilibrium. Whether this yoiuig ruUn* is capable of 
adapting himself and his government to modern condi- 
tions remains to be seen. Meanwhile, emigration will 
probably increase with popular dissatisfaction, which 
latter is indicated by the rapid groAvth of socialism. 

During the last twelve years, nearly three-quarters of 
a million of German subjects have emigrated to the 
United States, and the number is not likely to decrease 
under increasing burdens. A few years ago, a member 
of the Reichstag exclaimed : ''The German people have 
now but one want — money enough to get to America. " 

Austria. Immigration from this quarter shows a 
marked increase; and the Minister of War calls for a 
considerable addition to the army, which will involve an 
increased expenditure of 80,000,000 or 100,000,000 llorins. 

Italy. The Italians are worse fed than any other peo- 
ple in Eiu'ope, save the Portuguese. The tax-collector 
takes thirty-one per cent, of the people's eiirnings! 
Many thousands of small proprietors have been evicted 
from the crown-lands because unable to pay the taxes. 
The biH'den of taxation has become intolerable. Not- 
withstanding the industrial advance made by lU\ly 
from 1870 to 1880, the national debt increased so nuich 
more rapidly that the nation was $200,000,000 poorer in 
1880 than ten years before. For the tinancial year end- 
ini;- in 1888 tliere was a deficit in tlie national treasurv of 
57,000,000 lire; and for the two yeains ending in 1800 the 
budget estimates showed a deficit of 248,000,000 lire. 
Growing population and increasing taxation are result- 
ing in increased emigration. The total number of emi- 
grants, which in 1884 was 147,000, had increased in 1888 
to 200,000. At present this stream is mercifully being 
deflected in Inrire measure to South America, but ouv 



PERILS. — IMMIGRATIOiq". 49 

portion of it tends to increase, and Italy, pressed by 
want as severe as that of Ireland, may yet send a like 
flood upon us. 

Russia. The throne of the Czar stands on a volcano. 
Alexander III. seems fully committed to imperialism, 
and the Revolutionists are fully determined that the 
people shall assist in the work of government. They 
are wholly unrestrained by any religious scruples, 
and do not hesitate to sacrifice themselves as well as 
their enemies in the execution of their plans. ' ' The 
Government may continue to arrest and hang as long as 
it likes, and may succeed in oppressing single revolution- 
ary bodies. . . . But this will not change the state 
of things. Revolutionists will be created by events ; by 
the general discontent of the whole of the people ; by the 
tendency of Russia toward new social forms. An entire 
nation cannot be suppressed."' The utterly lawless 
warfare of the Nihilists naturally prevents the Czar 
from making any concessions, while his arbitrary and 
oppressive acts deepen popular discontent. Apparently, 
the repressive policy of the Government and popular 
agitation will serve each to intensify the other, until 
there results a spasmodic convulsion throughout Russia. 
And revolution in Russia means increased emigration. 

Great Britain. There is much popular discontent in 
the United Kingdom, which will increase as England 
loses her manufacturing supremacy. The late Mr. Faw- 
cett says ^ that local expenditure, if it increases during 
the next quarter of a century as during the last, will ex- 
ceed that of the Imperial Government. Local authorities 
raise $200,000,000 a year for local purposes, and have an 
annual deficit of $100,000,000, which is met by borrowing. 
Local indebtedness increased from $165,000,000 in 1867 to 
$600,000,000 in 1884. In 1880 the amount of mortgage on 
landed property in Great Britain and Ireland was 58 per 
cent, of its full value. Thomas Hughes says: ''We 

» Address of the "Executive Committee'' to the Emperor, March 10th, 
1881. Underground Russia, p. 267. 
2 Manual of Political Economy. 



50 PERILS. — IMMIGRATION". 

may despise the present advocates of social democracy, 
and make light of their sayings and doings; but 
there is no man who knows what is really going on in 
England but will admit that there will have to be a 
serious reckoning with them at no distant day." There 
is but one Gladstone, and he is an old man. A writer in 
The British Quarterly ^ says : ' ' The retirement of Mr. 
Gladstone will be the breaking up of the great deep in 
English politics." And social and political disturbances 
in Great Britain mean increased emigration. 

The progress of civilization is in the direction of popu- 
lar government. All kings and their armies cannot 
reverse the wheels of human progress. I think it was 
Victor Hugo, who, with prophetic ear, heard a European 
of some coming generation say: "Why, we once had 
kings over here! " All the races of Europe will one day 
enjoy the civil liberty which now seems the peculiar birth- 
right of the Anglo-Saxon. De Tocqueville, whom Mr. 
Gladstone calls the Edmund Burke of his generation, 
said he regarded the progress of democratic principles in 
government as a providential fact, the result of a divine 
decree. Matthew Arnold, after his last visit to America, 
speaking of the republican form of government, said : " It 
is the only eventual form of government for all people." 
Great revolutions, then, are to take place in Europe, 
why not within the next twenty-five years — some of 
them? And judging the future by the past, they will 
not be peaceful. The giant is blind and grinding in his 
prison house, howbeit his locks are growing, and we 
know not how soon he may bow himself between the 
pillars of despotism. 

Besides the great political revolutions which may rea- 
sonably be expected within a generation, men are fear- 
ing the tremendous conflict of arms which General Von 
Moltke has seen for years pending "like the sword of 
Damocles," and which he and many others regard as, 
inevitable. Silent, but profound influences are at work' 

1 April, 1883, 



PERILS. — IMMIGRATION". 



51 



to revise the map of Europe. The common people are 
learning to read, and history and poetry kindle patriot- 
ism. With the growth of popular intelligence, the iden- 
tity of language and of blood is exerting an increasing 
influence, and the fragments of nationalities, long since 
disrhembered and thought dead, are seeking each other 
like the dry bones in Ezekiel's vision, to be followed by 
a resurrection of the old national spirit and life. The 
Eastern question of to-day springs from the fact that 
many fragments of different races, held together only 
by the arbitrary bond of force, are seeking a rearrange- 
ment based on a common origin and language. It looks 
as if this tendency would sooner or later disturb the ex- 
isting balance of power, and so precipitate a great, and 
perhaps general, conflict. 

In preparation for this crisis each nation is seeking to 
outdo its rivals. The following table ^ indicates in some 
measure what a European war might mean : 



Countries. 


Peace-Footing. 


War-Footing. 


Total, Including 
ALL Reserves. 


Austria- 
Hungary, 


323,000 


1,631,000 


4,000,000 


France, 


555,000 


2,500,000 


3,750,000 


Germany, 


492,000 


2,232,000 


3,000,000 


Italy, 


255,000 


588,000 


2,765,000 


Eussia, 


814,000 


1,715,000 


7,511,000 2 


Total, 


2,439,000 


8,666,000 


21,026,000 



1 Compiled from the Statesman's Year-Book, 1890, 
3 The World Almanac, 1890, 



52 PEEILS. — IMMIGRATION. 

Of course readiness for war is something relative. 
Whatever its army may be, a nation becomes ill-pre- 
pared as soon as its enemy is better prepared. Hence 
the ever-increasing equipment and the growth of mili- 
tarism, which, as Mr. Gladstone says, " lies like a vam- 
pire over Europe." 

In Continental Europe generally the best years of all 
able-bodied men are demanded for military duty. Ger- 
mans must be seven years in the army, and give three of 
them to active service; the French, nine years in the 
army and five years in active service; Austrians, ten 
years in the army and three in active service ; Eussians, 
fifteen years in the army and six in active service. 
When not in active service they are under certain re- 
strictions. In addition to all this, when no longer mem- 
bers of the army, they are liable to be called on to do 
military duty for a period varying from two to five 
years. This robbery of a man's life, together with the 
common expectation that war must come sooner or 
later, will continue to be a powerful stimulus to emigra- 
tioni; and the "blood tax " which is required to support 
these millions of men during unproductive years is 
steadily increasing. While aggregate taxation de- 
creased in the United States, from 1870 to 1880, 9. 15 per 
cent., it increased in Europe 28.01 per cent. The in- 
crease in Great Britain was 20. 17 per cent. ; in France, 
36.13 per cent. ; in Russia, 37.83 per cent. ; in Sweden and 
Norway, 50.10 per cent. ; in Germany, 57.81 per cent. 
And while the burden of taxation is so heavy and so 
rapidly increasing, the public debts of Continental 
Europe are making frightful growth. They increased 
71.75 per cent, from 1870 to 1880, since which time they 
have been enlarged by nearly three thousand million 
dollars and now reach a total of $20,580,000,000, entailing 
an annual burden of $1,000,000,000 for interest. The cost 

^ "During 1872 and 1873, which were good years for the working classes of 
Germany, there were not less than 10,000 processes annually for evasion of 
military duty by emigration." Professor Smith's Emigration and Immigra- 
tion, p. 27. 



PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 53 

of government rose fifty per cent, from 1875 to 1885. If 
existing tendencies continue a quarter of a century- 
longer, they are likely to precipitate a terrible financial 
catastrophe and perhaps a great social crisis. Moreover, 
the pressure of a dense population is increasing; 22,225- 
000 souls having been added to the population of Europe 
during the ten years preceding 1880. Europe could 
send us an unceasing stream of 2,000,000 emigrants a 
year for a century, and yet steadily increase her popula- 
tion. 

We find, therefore, the prospect of political commo- 
tions, the fear of war, the thumb-screw of taxation 
given a frequent turn, and a dense population becoming 
more crowded, all uniting their influence to swell Euro- 
pean emigration for years to come. 

3. Facilities of travel are increasing. From 1870 to 
1880, 39,857 miles of railway were built in Europe, only 
two thousand less than in the United States during the 
same period; and from 1880 to 1888 there were 26,478 
miles built. Thus, interior populations are enabled 
more easily to reach the seaboard. Instead of a long 
and tedious passage by sailship, the steamer lands the 
immigrant in a week or ten days. We find that steam- 
ships, in a single year, make 741 trips from nine Euro- 
pean ports to New York, and 144 from other ports of 
Europe. And some of these ships carry upwards of a 
thousand steerage passengers. Improvements in steam 
navigation are making the ocean passage easier, quicker 
and cheaper. In 1825 the cheapest passage from Europe 
to America was about $100. Now the rates from conti- 
nental ports to New York are from $23 to $26. Steerage 
passage from Hamburg to New York has been as low as 
seven dollars. ^ There are great multitudes in Europe 
who look westward with longing eyes, but who do not 
come, only because they cannot gather the passage 
money and keep soul and body together. The reduction 



Testimony before Ford Committee, p. 5. 



54 PERILS. — IMMIGEATIOK. 

of rates, even a few dollars, makes America possible to 
added thousands. 

The threefold influences, therefore, which regulate 
immigration all co-operate to increase it and indicate 
that for years to come this great ' ' gulf-stream of hu- 
manity " with here and there an eddy, will flow on with 
a rising flood. 

Furthermore, labor-saving machinery has entered 
upon a campaign of world-wide conquest. This fact will 
render still more operative each of the three classes of 
influences enumerated above. Wherever man labors 
labor-saving machinery is destined ultimately to go ; and 
the people of the United States are to make most of it 
for the world. We have mountains of iron and inex- 
haustible measures of coal, together with a genius for 
invention. In fifty-three years, 1837-1889, our Patent 
Office has issued 449, 928 patents. Already are we send- 
ing our machines over the civilized world. And what 
does this mean? Sending a machine to Europe that does 
the work of a hundred men, temporarily throws a hun- 
dred men out of employment. That machine is useful 
because it renders useless the skill or strength of a hun- 
dred men. They cannot easily, in a crowded population, 
adjust themselves to this new condition of things. The 
making of this machinery in the United States increases 
the demand for labor here, and its exportation decreases 
the demand for labor in the Old World. That means 
immigration to this country. We are to send our labor- 
saving machinery around the globe, and in a sense, 
equivalents in bone and muscle are to be sent back to 
us. 

In view of the fact that Europe is able to send us six 
times as many immigrants during the next thirty years 
as during the thirty years past, without any diminution 
of her population, and in view of all the powerful influ- 
ences co-operating to stimulate the movement, is it not 
reasonable to expect a rising tide of immigration unless 
Congress takes effective measures to check it? 

The Tenth Census gave our total foreign-born popula- 



PEKILS.— IMMIGRATIOK. 55 

tion as 6,679,943; but we must not forget their children 
of the first generation, who, as we shall see, present a 
more serious problem than their parents, the immi- 
grants. This class numbered in 1880, 8,276,053, making 
a total population of nearly 15,000,000 which was foreign 
by birth or parentage. 

We are not yet informed by the Eleventh Census 
what is the present foreign-born population. But know- 
ing what it was in 1880 and knowing what immigration 
has been since then, we can estimate it approximately. 
If the death rate among the foreign-born population was 
the same from 1880 to 1890 as from 1870 to 1880 and if 
the same percentage returned to Europe, that population 
now numbers 9,590,000; and if the proportion of foreign- 
born to those of foreign-parentage is the same now as in 
1880, our population which is foreign by birth or parent- 
age numbers 31,385,000, or 33.94 per cent, of the whole. ^ 

So immense a foreign element must have a p^^ofound 
influence on our national life and character. Immigra- 
tion brings unquestioned benefits, but these do not con- 
cern our argument. It complicates almost every home 
missionary problem and furnishes the soil which feeds 
the life of several of the most noxious growths of our 
civilization. I have, therefore, dwelt at some length 
upon its future that we may the more accurately meas- 
ure the dangers which threaten us. 

Consider briefly the moral and political influence of 
immigration. 1. Influence on morals. Let me hasten 
to recognize the high worth of many of our citizens 
of foreign birth, not a few of whom are eminent in the 

1 In the first edition, it was estimated that in view of all the influences 
calculated to stimulate immigration the annual average from 1880 to 1900 
would very likely reach 800,000 which was in round numbers the immigra- 
tion in 1882. The annual average for the past ten years has been 524,800. 
Immigration for the next ten years, if unrestrained by a financial panic or 
hostile legislation, might be large enough to raise the average for the 
twenty years to 800,000, but the very general feeling of opposition to unre* 
stricted immigration, which has manifested itself in recent years, would 
doubtless lead Congress to take action which would restrict it before it 
could assume such proportions. 



56 PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 

pulpit and in all the learned professions. Many come to 
us in full sympathy with our free institutions, and desir- 
ing to aid us in promoting a Christian civilization. 
But no one knows better than these same intelligent 
and Christian foreigners that they do not represent the 
mass of immigrants. The typical immigrant is a 
European peasant, whose horizon has been narrow, 
whose moral and religious training has been meager or 
false, and whose ideas of life are low. Not a few 
belong to the pauper and criminal classes. " From a late 
report of the Howard Society of London, it appears that 
' seventy-four per cent, of the Irish discharged convicts 
have found their way to the United States.' " ' " Every 
detective in New York knows that there is scarcely a 
ship landing immigrants that does not bring English, 
French, German, or Italian ' crooks/ " ^ Moreover, 
immigration is demoralizing. No man is held upright 
simply^ by the strength of his own roots ; his branches 
interlock with those of other men, and thus society is 
formed, with all its laws and customs and force of 
public opinon. Few men appreciate the extent to 
which they are indebted to their surroundings for the 
strength with which they resist, or do, or suffer. All 
this strength the emigrant leaves behind him. He is 
isolated in a strange land, perhaps doubly so by reason 
of a strange speech. He is transplanted from a forest 
to an open prairie, where, before he is rooted, he is 
smitten with the blasts of temptation. 

We have a good deal of piety in our churches that will 
not bear transportation. It cannot endure even the 
slight change of climate involved in spending a few sum- 
mer weeks at a watering place, and is commonly left at 
home. American travelers in Europe often grant them- 
selves license, on which, if at home, they would frown. 
Very many church-members, when they go west, seem 
to think they have left their Christian obligations with 



1 Dorchesters' Problem of Religious Progress, p. 423. 

2 W. M. F. Round in Forum for December 1889. 



PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 57 

their church-membership in the East. And a consider- 
able element of our American-born population are ap- 
parently under the impression that the Ten Command- 
ments are not binding west of the Missouri. Is it 
strange, then, that those who come from other lands, 
whose old associations are all broken and whose reputa- 
tions are left behind, should sink to a lower moral level? 
Across the sea they suffered many restraints which are 
here removed. Better wages afford larger means of self- 
indulgence ; often the back is not strong enough to bear 
prosperity, and liberty too often lapses into license. Our 
population of foreign extraction is sadly conspicuous in 
our criminal records. This element constituted in 1870 
twenty per cent, of the population of New England, and 
furnished seventy-five per cent, of the crime. That is, it 
was twelve times as much disposed to crime as the 
native stock. The hoodlums and roughs of our cities 
are, most of them, American-born of foreign parentage. 
Of the 680 discharged convicts who applied to the Prison 
Association of New York for aid, during the year ending 
June 30, 1882, 442 were born in the United States, 
against 238 foreign-born ; while only 144 reported native 
parentage against 536 who reported foreign parentage. 

The Ehode Island Work-house and House of Correc- 
tion had received, to December 31, 1882, 6,202 persons on 
commitment. Of this number, fifty -two per cent, were 
native-born and seventy-six per cent, were born of 
foreign parentage.^ Of the 182 prisoners committed to 
the Massachusetts Eeformatory for Women in 1880-81, 
eight J7--one per cent, were of foreign birth or parentage. 
While in 1880 the foreign-born were only thirteen per 
cent, of the entire population, they furnished nineteen 
per cent, of the convicts in our penitentiaries, and forty- 
three per cent, of the inmates of work-houses and houses 
of correction. And it must be borne in mind that a very 
large proportion of the native-born prisoners were of 

1 For additional statistics on this point, see North American Review^ 
January, 1884. 



58 



PERILS. — IMMIGRATION". 



foreign parentage, and this foreign-born element, while 
it constituted less than one-seventh of our population, 
furnished more than one-third of our paupers, and five- 
eighths of our suicides. 

Moreover, immigration not only furnishes the greater 
portion of our criminals, it is also seriously affecting the 
morals of the native population. It is disease and not 
health which is contagious. Most foreigners bring with 
them continental ideas of the Sabbath, and the result is 
sadly manifest in all our cities, where it is being trans- 
formed from a holy day into a holiday. But by far the 
most effective instrumentality for debauching popular 
morals is the liquor traffic, and this is chiefly carried on 
by foreigners. In 1880, of the "Traders and dealers in 
liquors and wines," ^ (I suppose this means wholesale 
dealers) sixty-three per cent, were foreign-born, and of 
the brewers and maltsters seventy -five per cent, while a 
large proportion of the remainder were of foreign parent- 
age. Of saloon-keepers about sixty per cent, were 
foreign-born, while many of the remaining forty per 
cent, of these corrupters of youth, these western Arabs, 
whose hand is against every man, were of foreign ex- 
traction. 

2. We can only glance at the political aspects of im- 
migration. As we have already seen, it is immigration 
which has fed fat the liquor power ; and there is a liquor 
vote. Immigration furnishes most of the victims of 
Mormonism ; and there is a Mormon vote. Immigration 
is the strength of the Catholic church ; and there is a 
Catholic vote. Immigration is the mother and nurse of 
American socialism ; and there is to be a socialist vote. 
Immigration tends strongly to the cities, and gives to 
them their political complexion. And there is no more 
serious menace to our civilization than our rabble-ruled 
cities. These several perils, all of which are enhanced by 
immigration, w^ll be considered in succeeding chapters. 

Many American citizens are not Americanized. It is 



> The Tenth Census. 



PEEILS. — IMMIGBATIOK. 59 

as unfortunate as it is natural, that foreigners in this 
country should cherish their own language and peculiar 
customs, and carry their nationality, as a distinct factor, 
into our politics. Immigration has created the ' ' Ger- 
man vote" and the "Irish vote," for which politicians 
bid, and which have already been decisive of state elec- 
tions, and might easily determine national. A mass of 
men but little acquainted with our institutions, who will 
act in concert and who are controlled largely by their 
appetites and prejudices, constitute a very paradise for 
demagogues. 

We have seen that immigration is detrimental to pop- 
ular morals. It has a like influence upon popular intel- 
ligence, for the percentage of illiteracy among the 
foreign-born population is thirty-eight per cent, greater 
than among the native-born whites. Thus immigration 
complicates our moral and political problems by swelling 
our dangerous classes. And as immigration will prob- 
ably increase more rapidly than the population, we may 
infer that the dangerous classes will probably increase 
more rapidly than hitherto. ^ It goes without saying, 
that there is a dead-line of ignorance and vice in every 
republic, and when it is touched by the average citizen, 
free institutions perish; for intelligence and virtue are 
as essential to the life of a republic as are brain and heart 
to the life of a man. 

A severe strain upon a bridge may be borne with safety 
if evenly distributed, which, if concentrated, would ruin 
the whole structure. There is among our population of 
alien birth an unhappy tendency toward aggregation, 
which concentrates the strain upon portions of our so- 
cial and political fabric. Certain quarters of many of 
the cities, are, in language, customs and costumes, es- 
sentially foreign. Many colonies have bought up lands 



» From 1870 to 1880 the population Increased 30.06 per cent. During the 
same period the number of criminals increased 82.33 per cent. In 1850, there 
were 290 prisoners to every million of the population; in 1860, there were 607 
to each million; in 1870, there were 853, and in 1880, there were 1169. That 
is. in thirty years the proportion of criminals increased fourfold. 



60 PERILS. — IMMIGRATION". 

and so set themselves apart from Americanizing influ- 
ences. In 18-45, New Glarus, in southern Wisconsin, was 
settled by a colony of 108 persons from one of the can- 
tons of Switzerland, In 1880 they numbered 1,060 souls; 
and in 1885 it was said, " No Yankee lives within a ring 
of six miles round the first built dug-out." This Helve- 
tian settlement, founded three years before Wisconsin 
became a state, has preserved its race, its language, its 
worship, and its customs in their integrity. Similar col- 
onies are now being planted in the West. In some cases 
100,000 or 200,000 acres in one block, have been pur- 
chased by foreigners of one nationality and religion; 
thus building up states within a state, having different 
languages, different antecedents, different religions, dif- 
ferent ideas and habits, preparing mutual jealousies, and 
perpetuating race antipathies. In New England, conven- 
tions are held to which only French Canadian Catholics 
are admitted . At such a convention in Nashua in 1888, 
attended by eighty priests, the following mottoes were 
displayed: " Our tongue, our nationality, and our re- 
ligion." " Before everything else let us remain French." 
If our noble domain Avere tenfold larger than it is, it 
would still be too small to embrace with safety to our 
national future, httle Germanies here, little Scandina- 
vias there, and little Irelands yonder, A strong central- 
ized government, like that of Eome under the Caesars, 
can control heterogeneous populations, but local self-gov- 
ernment implies close relations between man and man, a 
measure of sympathy, and, to a certain extent, commu- 
nity of ideas. Our safety demands the assimilation of 
these strange populations, and the process of assimilation 
will become slower and more difficult as the proportion 
of foreigners increases. 

When we consider the influence of immigration, it is 
by no means reassuring to reflect that so large a share 
of it is pouring into the formative West. Already is the 
proportion of foreigners in the territories from two to 
three times greater than in the states east of the Missis- 
sippi. In the East, institutions have been long estab- 



PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 61 

lished and are, therefore, less easily modified by foreign 
influence, but in the West, where institutions are forma- 
tive, that influence is far more powerful. We may well 
ask — and with special reference to the West — whether 
this in-sweeping immigration is to foreignize us, or we 
are to Americanize it. Mr. Beecher once said, ' ' When 
the lion eats an ox, the ox becomes lion, not the lion, ox." 
The illustration would be very neat if it only illustrated. 
The lion happily has an instinct controlled by an unfail- 
ing law which determines what, and when, and how 
much he shall eat. If that instinct should fail, and he 
should some day eat a badly diseased ox, or should very 
much over-eat, we might have on our hands a very sick 
lion. I can even conceive that under such conditions 
t|;ie ignobfe ox might slay the king of beasts. Foreigners 
are not coming to the United States in answer to any 
appetite of ours, controlled by an unfailing moral or 
political instinct. They naturally consult their own in- 
terests in coming, not ours. The lion, without being 
consulted as to time, quantity or quality, is having the 
food thrust down his throat, and his only alternative is, 
digest or die. 



Roman Catholic Population in New Mexico, Arizona, 
Utah, Wyoming, Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Wash- 
ington, in 1880, Compared with the Entire Member- 
ship of all Evangelical Chm'ches. 



Members 

of Evangelical 

Churches. 



CHAPTER V. 



PERILS. — ROMANISM. 



The perils which threaten the nation and pecuHarly 
menace the West demand, for their adequate presenta- 
tion, much more space than the narrow hmits of this 
work allow. We can touch only salient points. 

ROMANISM. 

There are many who are disposed to attribute any fear 
of Roman Catholicism in the United States to bigotry 
or childishness. Such see nothing in the character and 
attitude of Romanism that is hostile to our free institu- 
tions, or find nothing portentous in its growth. Let us, 
then, first, compare some of the fundamental principles 
of our free institutions with those of the Roman Catholic 
church. 



PERILS. — ROMANISM. 63 

I. Tlie Declaration of Independence teaches Popular 
Sovereignty. It says that ' ' governmejits derive their just 
powers from the consent of the governed.'''' Roman Cath- 
olic doctrine invests the Pope with supreme sovereignty. 
In " Essays on Religion and Literature," edited by Arch- 
bishop Manning, 1867, we read, p. 416 ; ' ' Moreover, the 
right of deposing kings is inherent in the supreme sover- 
eignty which the Popes, as vicegerents of Christ, exer- 
cise over all Christian nations. " 

In Art. VI., Sec. 2 of the Constitution we find: " This 
Constitution and the laws of the United States which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof .... shall be the 
supreme law of the land.'''' The Canon Law of the 
Church of Rome is essentially the constitution of that 
church, binding upon Roman Catholics everywhere. 
The bull, ^^ Pastoralis Regiminis,''^ published by Benedict 
XIV. , is a part of the Canon Law and decrees that those 
who refuse to obey any " commands of the Court of 
Rome, if they be ecclesiastics, are ipso facto suspended 
from their orders and offices ; and, if they be laymen, 
are smitten with excommunication." 

The bull Unam Sanctam of Boniface VIII., which is 
also a part of the Canon Law, and acknowledged by 
Cardinal Manning as an "Article of Faith," says: "It 
is necessary that one sword should be under another, 
and that the temporal authority should be subject to the 
spiritual power. And thus the prophecy of Jeremiah is 
fulfilled in the church and the ecclesiastical power, 
' Behold, I have set thee over the kingdoms, to root out, 
and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to 
build and to plant ! ' Therefore, if the earthly power go 
astray, it must be judged' by the spiritual power ; but if 
the spiritual power go astray, it must be judged by God 
alone. Moreover, we declare, say, define, and pronounce 
it to be altogether necessary to salvation that every 
human creature should be subject to the Roman Pon- 
tiff. " ^ Bishop Gilmour, of Cleveland, Ohio, in his Lenten 

1 Corpus Juris Canonici, Leipsic edition, 1839, tpm. ii., p. 1159, 



64 PERILS. — ROMANISM. 

Letter, March, 1873, said : ' ' Nationalities must be subor- 
dinate to religion, and we must learn that we are Cath- 
olics first and citizens next. God is above man, and the 
church above the state." 

Here is a distinct issue touching the highest allegiance 
of the Roman Catholic citizens of the United States, 
whether it is due to the Pope or to the constitution and 
the laws of the land. In his Syllabus of Errors, Proposi- 
tion 42, issued December 8, 1864, Pius IX. said: " It is an 
error to hold that. In the case of conflicting laws be- 
tween the two powers, the civil law ought to prevail, "i 
The reigning pontiff, in an encyclical issued January 10, 
1890, says: " It is wrong to break the law of Jesus Christ 
in order to obey the magistrate, or under pretence of civil 
rights to transgress the laws of the church." ^ Again 
Leo XIII. says: " But if the laws of the state are openly 
at variance with the law of G-od — if they inflict injury 

upon the church or set at naught the authority of 

Jesus Christ which is vested in the Supreme Pontiff, 
then indeed it becomes a duty to resist them, a sin to 
render obedience. " ^ 

We must not imagine that the two spheres, religious 
and secular, are so distinct as to prevent all conflict of 
authorities. Why does Pius IX. say that it is an error 
to hold that, ' ' In the case of conflicting laws between 
the two powers, the civil law ought to prevail," unless 
there is some possibility of conflict? Says Mr. Gladstone : * 
' ' Even in the United States, where the severance be- 
tween church and state is supposed to be complete, a 
long catalogue might be drawn of subjects belonging to 
the domain and competency of the State, but also unde- 
niably affecting the government of the Church ; such as, 
by way of example, marriage, burial, education, prison 
discipline, blasphemy, poor-relief, incorporation, mort- 



1 See also Apostolic Letter, Ad Apostolic oe, August 33, 185L 

2 Authorized Translation of Encyclical, p. 3. 

3 Ibid. p. 4. 

4 Vatican Decrees, Harper & Brothers, 1875, p. 30. 



PERILS. — EOMAi^ISM. 66 

main, religious endowments, vows of celibacy, and 
obedience." The Pope might declare that any or all of 
these are "things which belong to faith and morals " or 
' ' that pertain to the discipline and government of the 
church," over which matters the Vatican Council de- 
creed him to be possessed of ' ' all the fulness of supreme 
power. "^ 

The word "morals " is quite broad enough to overlap 
politics. Cardinal Manning says:^ "Why should the 
Holy Father touch any matter in politics at all? For 
this plain reason, because politics are a part of morals. 
. . . . Politics are morals on the widest scale." Leo 
XIII. in his encyclical of January 10, 1890, declares that 
''politics .... are inseparably bound up with the laws 
of morality and religious duties.''^ This declaration is 
ex cathedra and, therefore, "infallible," the end of con- 
troversy to all good Roman Catholics. It renders every 
utterance which the Pope may hereafter make concern- 
ing politics absolutely binding on the conscience of 
every Romanist, at the peril of salvation. This is per- 
haps the most important word that has come from Rome 
since 1870 when the Vatican Council ' ' put the top-stone 
to the pyramid of the Roman hierarchy." Not that 
papal interference in politics is anything new in doc- 
trine* or practice, but it has often been denied, and 
Roman Catholics commonly profess entire loyalty both 
to the civil power and to the Pope, thus implying that 
the two spheres, secular and religious, are quite distinct ; 
while moderate Romanists have sometimes expressly 
said: "We will take our religion but not our politics 
from Rome." It is, therefore, of the highest importance 
that we have here a perfectly clear and irreversible 
declaration, which no good Roman Catholic will dispute, 



. ^ See The First Dogmatic Constitution of the Cliurch of Christ, Chap. 
III. 

2 Ecclesiastical Sermons, Vol. III. p. 83. 

3 The Pilot, Boston, February 15, 1890. 

* See Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX. , December 8, 1864, Proposition No. 
27. Allocution Maxima quidem, June 9, 1863. 



Q6 PERILS. — EOMANISM. 

that politics is not possibly or incidentally hut ''insep- 
arably,'' bound up with morality and religion. That is, 
the connection between the two spheres is necessary, and 
the Pope has " full and supreme power " over politics as 
one of the "things which belong to faith and morals;" 
and he who denies this must rest under the " anathema 
sit " of the Vatican Council.^ 

Said Vicar-General Preston, in a sermon preached 
in New York, January 1, 1888, "Every word that Leo 
speaks from his high chair is the voice of the Holy 
Ghost and must be obeyed. To every Catholic heart 
comes no thought but obedience. It is said that politics 
is not within the province of the church, and that the 
church has only jurisdiction in matters of faith. You 
say, 'I will receive my faith from the Pontiff, but 
I will not receive my politics frorn him.' This 
assertion is disloyal and untruthful. . . . You must 
not think as jou choose ; you must think as Catholics. 
The man who says, ' I will take my faith from Peter, but 
I will not take my politics from Peter,' is not a true 
Catholic. The Church teaches that the supreme Pon- 
tiff must be obeyed, because he is the vicar of the 
Lord. Christ speaks through him." The claims of 
the Ultramontanes are quite logical. Christ is King of 
kings and Lord of lords. His right to rule is absolute 
and his authority unlimited. If, now, Christ has a vice- 
gerent on earth, if there is a vicar of God among men, 
his sovereignty is absolute, his authority unlimited. 
The Roman Catholic must, as Leo XIII. says,^ render 
as ' ' perfect submission and obedience of will to the 
Church and the Sovereign Pontiff, as to God himself." 
He who would divide the authority of the Pope, accept a 
part and reject a part, is as poor a Romanist as he is 
logician. If, then, as Vicar-General Preston says, such 
a man "is not a true Catholic, " how can a " true Catho- 



1 See the First Dogmatic Constitution of the Church of Christ, Chapter 
III. 
8 The Pilot, Boston, Fel5ruary 15, 1890. 



PERILS. — EO^IANISM. 67 

lie "be a loyal citizen? He can be such only until some 
issue arises which compels him to choose between the 
two masters. And as an eminent writer has said : ^ " We 
can scarce hope that the time will not come when our 
Catholic fellow citizens will be put to the strain of elect- 
ing between the allegiance due to the state and that due 
to the church." 

Cardinal Manning in his reply to Mr. Gladstone says : 
"That the civil allegiance of no man is unlimited, and 
therefore the civil allegiance of all men who believe in 
God, or are governed by conscience, is in that sense 
divided. In this sense, and in no other, can it be said 
with truth that the civil allegiance of Catholics is 
divided."^ This is the best answer that can be made, 
but it is not adequate. Of course the civil allegiance of 
no man is absolutely unlimited. If divine and human 
laws are in conflict, ' ' we ought to obey God rather than 
man." But just here appears the radical difference 
between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant. The latter 
accepts the will of God, revealed in the Bible and in his 
own conscience, as interpreted by himself. If the 
requirements of government are inconsistent with the 
Word of God (which is scarcely possible with our consti- 
tutional guarantees of religious liberty), or if he believes 
that they are, his understanding may be informed, his 
conscience may be enlightened, he is at liberty to change 
his views. And even if he does not, he stands alone, 
and cannot possibly be a menace to the peace of society. 

The Romanist, on the other hand, accepts the will of 
God, as interpreted by the Pope, who, as we have seen, 
claims that his sphere of authority is "inseparably 
bound up " with that of the civil government and who, 
therefore, cannot be disinterested. If now, the require- 
ments of government are inconsistent with the will of 
the Pope, the Roman Catholic is not at liberty to weigh 
the Pope's judgment, to try his commands by his own 



1 Henry Charles Lea, in The Forum, February, 1890. 

2 The Vatican Decrees, D. Appleton & Co., 1874, p. 76. 



\ 



68 PERILS. — ROMANISM. 

conscience and the Word of Grod — to do this would be 
to become a Protestant. There can be no appeal to his 
reason or conscience, the decision is final and his duty 
absolute. And, moreover, he stands not alone, but with 
many millions more, who are bound by the most dread- 
ful penalties to act as one man in obedience to the will of 
a foreign potentate and in disregard of the laws of the 
land. This, I claim, is a very possible menace to the 
peace of society. 

If it seems to any that I have exaggerated the sur- 
render of reason and conscience required of a good 
Roman Catholic, weigh these words of Cardinal Bellar- 
mine, one of the most celebrated theologians of the 
Roman Church: "If the Pope should err by enjoining 
vices or forbidding virtues, the Church would be obliged 
to believe vices to be good and virtues bad, unless it 
would sin against conscience." ^ 

The revised Statutes of the United States declare:— 
" The alien seeking citizenship must make oath to re- 
nounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign 
prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, in particular that 



* Bellarmine, Lib. 4, de Pontilice, c. 5. Bishop Kain, of Wheeling, West 
Virginia, devoted his Lenten lecture, April 14, 1889, to Chapter V. of " Our 
Country." In it he said that Bellarmine was here using the argument 
reductio ad ahsurdumi to prove the inerrancy of the Pope, and that he, 
(Bellarmine) "draws the absurd and even blasphemous conclusion that 
would result from such a denial of his thesis." Does the Bishop forget that 
the whole force of a reductio ad absurdum lies in the necessity of the se- 
quence? Of course the absurdity of the conclusion does not prove the ab- 
surdity of the premise unless the one follows necessarily from the other. 
The argument of Bellarmine has no force with a Protestant because he sees 
that the declared sequence is not only not necessary, but is impossible. The 
fact that such an argument can have weight with a Catholic, the fact 
that Bellarmine could use it, shows that in such minds the sequence 
is necessary, which, as was remarked in the First Edition, affords a most 
excellent illustration of the " utter degradation of reason, and the stifling of 
conscience." 

The writer did not imagine that good Catholics would believe the Pope 
capable of error and, therefore, fear that they might some day be "obliged 
to believe vices to be good and virtues bad." The point of the quotation, 
which is missed by Bishop Kain, lies in the sequence which is affirmed by 
Bellarmine. 



PERILS. — ROMA]S"ISM. 69 

to which he has been subject." The Roman CathoHc 
profession of faith, having the sanction of the Council 
which met at Baltimore in 1884, contains the following 
oath of allegiance to the Pope : — " And I pledge and swear 
true obedience to the Roman Pontiff, vicar of Jesus 
Christ, and successor of the blessed Peter, prince of the 
Apostles." ^ We have already seen how broad is the 
obligation which the oath lays on the Romanists. Here, 
then, are men who have sworn allegiance to two different 
powers, each claiming to be supreme, whose spheres of au- 
thority are "inseparably" bound together and which, 
therefore, afford abundant opportunity for the rise of 
conflicting interests and irreconcilable requirements. 

By way of throwing light on such a situation, it is in- 
teresting to read in the Canon Law : ' ' No oaths are to 
be kept if they are against the interests of the Church of 
Rome." ^ And again: "Oaths which are against the 
Church of Rome, are not to be called oaths, but per- 
juries." ^ An American ecclesiastic, Bishop English, of 
Charleston, S. C. , quotes this canon, and defending it 
says : ' ' These are the principles which I have been 
taught from Roman Catholic authors, by Roman Cath- 
olic professors ; they are the principles which I find rec- 
ognized in all enactments and interpretations of councils 
in the Roman Catholic church, from the Council at Je- 
rusalem, held by the Apostles, down to the present 
day." * In a work prepared by Rev. F. X. Schouppe for 
Roman Catholic schools and colleges and bearing the 
imprimatur of Cardinal Manning, we read (p. 278), 
' ' The civil laws are binding on the conscience only so 
long as they are conformable to the rights of the Catho- 
lic Church." 

When a man has placed his conscience and will in the 



1 " Eomanoque Pontifici, beati Petri Apostolorum Principis successori ac 
Jesu Christi vicario veram obedientiam spondeo ac juro.''^ Acta et De- 
creta Concilii Baltimorensis III., p. liii. (Baltimore, 1886). 

2 Corpus Juris Canonici, Leipsic edition, 1839, torn, ii., p. 1159. 
s Ibid. p. 35t. 

* Letters Concerning the Roman Chancery, p. 158. 



'^0 PERILS.— R03IANISM. 

keeping of another for life, and on pain of eternal dam- 
nation, how can he make unconditional pledges touching 
anything? Or, having made them, how can they be of 
any value, if he accepts such doctrine as the above? Is 
his oath of allegiance to the government worthy of 
respect? Ought we not to place the same estimate on it 
that Cardinal Newman did when he said that no pledge 
from Catholics was of any value to which Rome was not 
a party ? ^ 

The two greatest living statesmen, Gladstone and Bis- 
marck, hold that the allegiance demanded by the Pope is 
inconsistent with good citizenship. Says the former: 
" — the Pope demands for himself the right to determine 
the province of his own rights, and has so defined it in 
formal documents as to warrant any and every invasion 
of the civil sphere; and that this new version of the 
principles of the Papal church inexorably binds its 
members to the admission of these exorbitant claims, 
without any refuge or reservation on behalf of their 
duty to the Crown." ^ He also says: "That Rome re- 
quires a convert who now joins her to forfeit his moral 
and mental freedom, and to place his loyalty and civil 
duty at the mercy of another." s 

The constitution of the United States guarantees Lib- 
erty of Conscience. Nothing is dearer or more funda- 
mental.* The first amendment to the constitution says : 
'* Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- 
ment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'''' 
Pius IX. declared it to be an error that, ' ' Every man is 
free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe 
true, guided by the light of reason."* And from this 
dictum no good Roman Catholic can differ. The same 
Pope in his encyclical of December 8, 1864, said : ' ' Con- 



1 Dr. John H. Newman's Reply to Mr. W. E. Gladstone, 1875, p. 14. 
' Vatican Decrees, Harper & Brothers, 1875, p. 31. 
8 Ibid. Third Proposition. 

4 Syllabus of Errors, December 8, 1864, Proposition No. ft. Allocution 
Maxima quideni, June 9, 1862. 



PERILS. — ROMAKiSM. '^'1 

trary to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, of the 
Church, and of the Holy Fathers, these persons do not 
hesitate to assert that ' the best condition of human 
society is that wherein no duty is recognized by the gov- 
ernment of correcting by enacted penalties the violators 
of the Catholic Religion, except when the maintenance 
of the public peace requires it.' From this totally false 
notion of social government, they fear not to uphold 
that erroneous opinion most pernicious to the Catholic 
Church, and to the salvation of souls, which was called 
by our predecessor, Gregory XVI. , the insanity (delira- 
mentum), namely, that 'liberty of conscience and of 
worship is the right of every man ; and that this right 
ought, in every well-governed state, to be proclaimed 
and asserted by the law.'" Much more to the same 
effect might be quoted from Pius IX. and Leo XIII. 

" When, in May, 1851, New Granada proclaimed religi- 
ous toleration and subjected the clergy to the secular 
courts, Pius IX., in the allocution ^ Acerhissimum^'' of 
September 37, 1852, pronounced the laws to be null and 
void, and threatened heavy ecclesiastical penalties on all 

who should dare to enforce them When, in 

1855, Mexico adopted a constitution embodying the 
same principles, Pius, in the allocution ' Nunquam fore,^ 
December 15, 1856, annulled the Constitution and for- 
bade obedience to it. When, about the same time Spain 
made an effort in the same direction, the allocution 
^ Nemo vestrum,'' of July 24, 1855, similarly abrogated 
the obnoxious provisions. Even a powerful empire like 
that of Austria fared no better when, in December, 
1867, it decreed liberty of conscience and of the press, 
and in May, 1868, adopted a law of civil marriage ; for 
the allocution ' Nunquam certe\ of June 22, 1868, 
denounced all these as atrocious laws, and declared 
them to be void and of no effect. " i And all this, be it 
remembered, transpired in modern times. 

In "Essays on Religion and Literature," edited by Car- 

1 Henry Charles Lea, Forum, February, 1890, pp. 630, 631. 



72 PERILS. — ROMANISM. 

dinal Manning ^ we read : ' ' That neither the church nor 
the state, whensoever they are united on the true basis 

of divine right, have any cognizance of tolerance 

The Church (of course the Roman Church) has the right 
in virtue of her divine commission, to require of every 
one to accept her doctrine. Whosoever obstinately 
refuses, or obstinately insists upon the election out of it 
of what is pleasing to himself is against her. But were 
the Church to tolerate such an opponent, she must 
tolerate another. If she tolerate one sect, she must toler- 
ate every sect, and thereby give ho-rself up." For the 
Roman Church to grant liberty of conscience would be, 
as is here said, to "give herself up." What that high 
American Roman Catholic authority. Dr. O. A. Brown- 
son, says is quite too true ; viz. : ' ' Protestantism of 
every form has not, and never can have any right where 
Catholicity is triumphant. " ^ (An odd kind of catho- 
licity, isn't it?) Again he says: "Heresy (that is, any 
doctrine in conflict Avith Romanism) and infidelity have 
not, and never had, and never can have, any right, 
being, as they undeniably are, contrary to the law of 
God. ".3 

In the Pontificale Eomaniim * is the bishop's oath, in 
which occur these words: "Heretics, schismatics and 
rebels against our said Lord or his successors I will to 
my utmost persecute (persequar) and oppose." What it 



1 Longmans, 1867, p. 403. 

2 Brownson's Catholic Review, June, 1857. 

3 Brownson's Quarterly, January, 1852. 

4 This is a book on rites and ceremonies, issued by order of Clement VIII. 
and Urban VIII. This form of the bishop's oath is quoted from the edition 
printed in MechUn, 1845. In it we find this Papal utterance: "We com- 
mand this our Pontifical, so restored and reformed, to be received and 
observed in all churches of the ivhole loorld; decreeing that the aforesaid 
Pontifical must never, at any time, be altered in whole or in part, nor 
anything at all he added to, or detracted from, the same:' Bishop Kain of 
Wheeling, if correctly reported by the press, states that the word persequar, 
is novr omitted by American bishops when taking the oath. How much 
weight should be allowed to this statement when we set over against it the 
above "infallible" and irrevocable conimaiul of a Supreme Pontiff, the 
reader can judge as well as I. 



PERILS. — R0MA3q"IS^I. 73 

Methodist and Episcopal bishops took an oath to perse- 
cute Eoman Cathohcs and all others who refuse to 
accept the standards of their respective churches! If 
Romanists were persecuted in Protestant countries, 
would they not demand the religious liberty for them- 
selves which they refuse to others? Their policy is very 
frankly stated by M. Louis Venillot, a distinguished 
French Roman Catholic writer, highly esteemed at 
Rome, who says: " When there is a Protestant .majority 
we claim religious liberty because such is their princi- 
ple ; but when we are in majority we refuse it because 
that is ours.'- 

Another of our principles closely related to that of re- 
ligious liberty is Freedom of Speech and of the Press, 
which is guaranteed to us by the First Amendment to 
the Constitution. " Congress shall make no law .... 
abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. ^'' Leo 
XIII. , in a letter, June 17, 1885, said, ' 'Such a duty (obed- 
ience), while incumbent upon all without exception, is 
most strictly so on journalists who, if they were not an- 
imated with the spirit of docility and submission so 
necessary to every Catholic, would help to extend and 
greatly aggravate the evils we deplore." A writer for 
the Catholic World i in an article entitled ' ' The Catho- 
lics of the Nineteenth Century," shows us what would 
become of free speech and the freedom of the press in the 
event of Roman ascendency in the United States. He 
says : ' ' The supremacy asserted for the Church in mat- 
ters of education implies the additional and cognate 
function of the censorship of ideas, and the right to ex- 
amine and approve or disapprove all books, publications, 
writings and utterances intended for public instruction, 
enlightenment, or entertainment, and the supervision of 
places of amusement. This is the principle upon which 
the Church has acted in handing over to the civil au- 
thorities for punishment criminals in the world of 
ideas." 

iJuly. 1870. 



H PERILS. — ilOMAJ^-lSM. 

Again, none of our fundamental principles is more 
distinctly American than that of the Complete Separa- 
tion of Church and State, which is required in the First 
Amendment to the Constitution, already quoted. Pius 
IX. teaches the exact opposite. He says it is an error to 
hold that, ' ' The Church ought to be separated from the 
State, and the State from the Church." i He also de- 
clares it to be an error that, ' ' The Church has not the 
power of availing herself of force, or any direct or in- 
direct temx)oral power." ^ 

Another foundation stone of our free institutions is the 
Public School, of which the state has and should have 
the entire direction without any ecclesiastical interfer- 
ence whatever. Touching this point, Pius IX. says it is 
an error to hold that, ' ' The entire direction of public 
schools .... may and must appertain to the civil 
power, and belong to it so far that no other authority 
whatsoever shall be recognized as having any right to 
interfere in the discipline of the schools, the arrange- 
ment of the studies .... or the choice and approval of 
teachers." 3 And again the same Pope: It is an error 
that, ' ' The best theory of civil society requires that pop- 
ular schools .... should be freed from all ecclesiastical 
authority, government, and interference, and should be 
fully subject to the civil and political power, in conform- 
ity with the will of rulers and the prevalent opinions of 
the age." * Again he says : It is an error, that, " This sys- 
tem of instructing youth, which consists in separating it 
from the Catholic faith and from the power of the 
church .... may be approved by Catholics ." ^ Bishop 



1 Syllabus of Errors, December 8, 1864, Proposition No. 55., Allocution 
Acerbissimum, September 27, 1852. 

2 Ibid. Proposition No. 24. Apostolic Letter, Ad apostolicoe, August 22, 
1851. 

5 Ibid. Proposition No. 45. Allocution, In Consistoriali, November 1, 1850. 
* Ibid. Proposition No. 47. Letter to the Archbishop of Fribourg, Quum 

non sine, July 14, 1864. 

6 Ibid. Proposition No. 48. Letter to the Archbishop of Fribourg, Quum 
non sine, July 14, 1864. 



PERILS. — KOMAKISM. 75 

McQuaid in a lecture at Horticultural Hall, Boston, 
February 13, 1876, declared: "The state has no 
right to educate, and when the state undertakes the 
work of education it is usurping the powers of the 
church." 

If there remains in any mind a lingering doubt as to 
the irreconcilable hostility of the Roman hierarchy 
toward our public school system- it would be dissipated 
by reading, "The Judges of Faith vs. Godless Schools," 
a little book written by a Roman Catholic priest and 
" Addressed to Catholic Parents." It bears the indorse- 
ments of Cardinals Gibbons and Newman, and of various 
dignitaries of that church. The prefatory note states that 
the book contains, "the conciliar or single rulings of no less 
than three hundred and eighty of the high and highest 
church dignitaries. There are brought forward, twenty- 
one plenary and provincial councils ; six or seven dioce- 
san synods ; two Roman pontiffs ; two sacred congrega- 
tions of some twenty cardinals and pontifical officials; 
seven single cardinals, who with thirty-three archbish- 
ops, make forty primates and metropolitans; finally, 
nearly eighty single bishops and archbishops, deceased 
or living, in the United States." All this mass of author- 
ity is against our public schools ; and the animus of these 
ecclesiastics toward this cherished institution is indi- 
cated by such epithets and appellations as the following : 
"mischievous," "baneful to society," "a social plague," 
"Godless," "pestilential," "scandalous," "filthy," "vi- 
cious," "diabolical," places of " unrestrained immoral- 
ity," where things are done the recital of which would 
" curdle the blood in your veins." 

Rome has never favored popular education. In Prot- 
estant countries like Germany and the United States, 
where there is a strong sentiment in favor of it, she has 
been compelled in self-defence to open schools of her own. 
But her real attitude toward the education of the masses 
should be inferred from her course in those countries 
where she has, or has had, undisputed sway ; and there 
she has kept the people in besotted ignorance. " The 



76 PERILS. — EOMANISM. 

Cyclopedia of Education " ^ 1877, in its article on Illiter- 
acy, gives a table containing the statistics of thirty coun- 
tries. Of these, five are starred as ' ' nearly free from il- 
literacy," and all of them are Protestant. The highest 
percentage of illiteracy given for any Protestant coun- 
try in the world is thirty-three. In all those countries 
where fifty per cent, or more are illiterate the religion is 
Roman Catholic, G-reek or heathen, viz. : Argentine Re- 
public, eighty-three per cent.; China, fifty per cent.; 
Greece, eighty-two per cent. ; Hungary, fifty-one ; India, 
ninety-five; Italy, seventy -three ; Mexico, ninety-three; 
Poland, ninety-one; Russia, ninety-one; Spain, eighty. 
Here, six Roman Cathohc countries, including Italy, the 
home of the Pope, where until recent years, the church 
has had undisputed sway, are far more illiterate than 
heathen China. Touching the education of the masses 
— except in Protestant countries as explained above — 
we are forced to infer either the indifference or the in- 
competence of the Church of Rome. 

We have ixiade a brief comparison of some of the fun- 
damental principles of Romanism with those of the 
Republic. And, 

1. We have seen the supreme sovereignty of the Pope 
opposed to the sovereignty of the people. 

2. We have seen that the commands of the Pope, instead 
of the constitution and laws of the land, demand the high- 
est allegiance of Roman Catholics in the United States. 

3. We have seen that the alien Romanist who seeks 
citizenship swears true obedience to the Pope instead of 
' ' renouncing forever all allegiance to any foreign prince, 
potentate, state or sovereignty," as required by our laws. 

4. We have seen that Romanism teaches religious in- 
tolerance instead of religious liberty. 

5. We have seen that Rome demands the censorship of 
ideas and of the press, instead of the freedom of the 
press and of speech. 



1 Edited by Henry Kiddle and Alexander J. Schem, Superintendent and 
Assistant Superintendent of Public Schools, New York City. 



PERILS. — EOMAIS^ISM. 77 

6. We have seen that she approves the union of 
church and state instead of their entire separation. 

7. We have seen that she is opposed to our public 
school system. 

Manifestly there is an irreconcilable difference be- 
tween papal principles and the fundamental principles 
of our free institutions. Popular government is self- 
government. A nation is capable of self-government 
only so far as the individuals who compose it are capable 
of self-government. To place one's conscience, there- 
fore, in the keeping of another, and to disavow all per- 
sonal responsibility in obeying the dictation of another, 
is as far as possible from seZ/-government, and, there- 
fore, wholly inconsistent with republican institutions, 
and, if sufficiently common, dangerous to their stability. 
It is the theory of absolutism in the state, that man ex- 
ists for the state. It is the theory of absolutism in the 
church that man exists for the church. But in republi- 
can and Protestant America it is believed that church 
and state exist for the people and are to be administered 
by them. Our fundamental ideas of society, therefore, 
are as radically opposed to Vaticanism as to imperialism, 
and it is as inconsistent with our liberties for Americans 
to yield allegiance to the Pope as to the Czar. It is true 
the Third Plenary Council in Baltimore denied that 
there is any antagonism between the laws, institutions 
and spirit of the Eoman church and those of our coun- 
try, and in so doing illustrated the French proverb that 
"To deny is to confess." No Protestant church makes 
any such denials. 

History fully justifies the teaching of philosophers 
that civil and political society tends to take the 
form of religious society. Absolutism in religion can- 
not fail in time to have an undermining influence 
on political equality. Already do we see its baneful 
influence in our large cities. It is for the most part the 
voters who accept absolutism in their faith who accept 
the dictation of their petty political popes, and suffer 
themselves to be led. to the polls like so many sheep. 



78 PEEILS. — ROMAiq^ISM. 

Bays the eminent Professor de Laveleye: " To-day we 
can prove to demonstration that which men of intellect 
in the eighteenth century were only beginning to per- 
ceive. The decisive influence which forms of worship 
bring to bear on political life and political economy had 
not hitherto been apparent. Now it breaks forth in the 
light, and is more and more closely seen in contempo- 
rary events." "Representative government is the nat- 
ural government of Protestant populations. Despotic 
government is the congenial government of Catholic 
populations." i 

II. Look now very briefly at the attitude or purpose of 
Romanism in this country. In an encyclical letter 
of November 7, 1885, Leo XIII., as reported by cable 
to the Neiv York Herald, said: "We exhort all 
Catholics to devote careful attention to public mat- 
ters, and take part in all municipal affairs and elec- 
tions, and all public services, meetings and gather- 
ings. All Catholics must make themselves felt as active 
elements in daily political life in countries where they 
live. All Catholics should exert their power to cause 
the constitutions of states to be modeled on the princi- 
ples of the true church." " If Catholics are idle," says 
the same pope, " the reins of power will easily be gained 
by persons whose opinions can surely afford little pros- 
pect of welfare. Hence, Catholics have just reason to 
enter into political life ; . . . . having in mind the pur- 
pose of introducing the wholesome life-blood of Catho- 
lic wisdom and virtue into the whole system of the 
state. All Catholics who are worthy of the name must 
.... work to the end, that every state be made con- 
formable to the Christian model we have described. ^ 
That Catholic authority, Dr. Brownson, in his Review for 
July, 1864, declared: "Undoubtedly it is the intention of 



lEmile de Laveleye's Protestantism and. Catholicism, in their bearing 
upon the Liberty and Prosperity of Nations, pp. 32, 33. 

^Encycl. Leo XIII.. November, 1885. QuotedbyMiiller in his Rom^an Catho- 
lic Catechism, Familiar Explanation of Catholic Doctrine, No. IV., pp. 
:^0, 251 and 252. 



PERILS. — ROMANISM. 79 

the Pope to possess this country. In this intention he is 
aided by the Jesuits and all the Catholic prelates and 
priests." And in some cases expectation is as eager as 
desire. Father Hecker in his last work/ published in 
1887, says : ' ' The Catholics will out-number, before the 
close of this century, all other believers in Christianity 
put together in the republic." 

III. Many of our Eoman Catholic fellow citizens un- 
doubtedly love the country, and believe that in seeking 
to Romanize it they are serving its highest interests, but 
when we remember, as has been shown, that the funda- 
mental principles of Romanism are opposed to those of 
the Republic, that the difference between them does not 
admit of adjustment, but is diametric and utter, it be- 
comes evident that it would be impossible to ' ' make 
America Catholic,''^ (which the archbishop of St. Paul 
declared at the late Baltimore Congress to be the mis- 
sion of Roman Catholics in this country) without bring- 
ing the principles of that church into active conflict with 
those of our government, thus compelling Roman Catho- 
lics to choose betiveen them, and in that event, every 
Romanist ivho remained obedient to the Pope, that is, 
who continued to be a Romanist, would necessarily 
become disloyal to our free institutions. 

IV. It is said, and truly, that there are two types of 
Roman Catholics in the United States. They may be 
distinguished as those who are "more Catholic than 
Roman," and those who are more Roman than Catho- 
lic. The former have felt the influence of modern 
thought, have been liberalized, and come into a large 
measure of sympathy with American institutions. Many 
are disposed to think that men of this class will control 
the Roman Church in this country and already talk of 
an "American Catholic Church." But there is no such 
thing as an American or Mexican or Spanish Catholic 
Church. It is the Roman Catholic Church in America, 
Mexico and Spain, having one and the same head, whose 

1 The Church and the Age, p. 56. 



80 PERILS. — KOMANISM. 

word is law, as absolute and as unquestioned among 
Roman Catholics here as in Spain or Mexico. "The 
archbishops and bishops of the United States, in Third 
Plenary Council assembled," in their Pastoral Letter 
"to their clergy and faithful people," declare: "We 
glory that we are, and, with God's blessing, shall con- 
tinue to be, not the American Church, nor the Church 
in the United States, nor a Church in any other sense, 
exclusive or limited, but an integral part of the one, 
holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ." i 

The Roman Catholics of the United States have repudi- 
ated none of the utterances of Leo XIII. or of Pius IX. , 
nor have they declared their political independence of 
the Vatican. On the contrary, the most liberal leaders 
of the church here vehemently affirm their enthusiastic 
loyalty to the Pope. The Pastoral Letter issued by the 
Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (December 7, 1884), 
and signed by Cardinal Gibbons, ' ' In his own name and 
in the name of all the Fathers," says: "Nor are there 
in the world more devoted adherents of the Catholic 
Church, the See of Peter, and the Vicar of Christ, than 
the Catholics of the United States." ^ Says a writer on 
the recent Roman Catholic Congress at Baltimore : " It 
was well that Masonic pseudo-Catholics, compromisers of 
the papal authority, persecutors of the clergy, anti- 
Jesuits, social revolutionalists, legal robbers of church 
property, lay educationalists, anti-clericals, should learn 
once for all, that the Catholic laymen of America are 
proud of being pro-papal ivithout compromise; that they 
are proud of the Jesuits from whose chaste loins the 
church in the United States drew its vigorous life." ^ 
This writer is not quoted as a representative of moderate 
Romanism, but, as one who very justly expresses the 
sentiment of loyalty to the Pope, which characterized 

1 Acta et Decreta Concilii Plenarii Baltimorensis Tertii, p. Ixxvi. 
(Baltimore, 1886). 

2 Ibid. 

3 John A. Mooney in American Catholic Quarterly Review, January, 
1890. 



PERILS. — ROMAi^ISM. 81 

the Baltimore Congress, and which, so far as we can 
judge, was shared by all alike. 

It is undoubtedly safe to say that there is not a mem- 
ber of the hierarchy in America, who does not accept 
the infallibility of the Pope and who has not sworn to 
obey him.i Now this dogma of papal infallibility as 
defined by the Vatican Council and interpreted by Pius 
IX. and Leo XIII. carries with it logically all of the 
fundamental principles of Romanism which have been 
discussed. Infallibility is necessarily intolerant. It can 
no more compromise with a conflicting opinion than 
could a mathematical demonstration. Truth cannot 
make concessions to error. Infallibility represents abso- 
lute truth. It is as absolute as God himself, and can no 
more enter into compromise than God can compromise 
with sin. And if infallibility is as intolerant as the 
truth, it is also as authoritative. Truth may be rejected, 
but even on the scaffold it is king, and has the right 
and always must have the right to rule absolutely, to 
control utterly every reasoning being. If I believed the 
Pope to be the infallible vicar of Christ, I would surren- 
der myself to him as unreservedly as to God himself. 
How can a true Roman Catholic do otherwise? A man 
may have breathed the air of the nineteenth century and 
of free America enough to be out of sympathy with the 
absolutism and intolerance of Romanism, but if he ac- 



1 " Hence, that no one in future may craftily pretend not to know how 
and whence to ascertain what the Church officially teaches; above all, that 
no one may henceforth scatter the baneful seeds of false doctrine with im- 
punity, under the mask of an appeal from the judgment of the Holy See 
(whether it be to learned universities, or state tribunals or future coun- 
cils, particular or general, as was done by Luther and the Jansenists), 
the Church of the living God, through the Fathers of the Vatican 
Council, has unequivocally declared that her authentic spokesman iiS 
the successor of St. Peter in the Apostolic See of Rome, and chat whatever 
he, as Head of the Church, defines ex cathedra is part of the Deposit of 
Faith intrusted to her keeping by Christ, Our Lord, and hence is subject 
to neither denial, doubt nor revision, but is to be implicitly received and 
believed by all." Acta et Decreta Concihi Baltimorensis Tei'tii, p. Ixxiii. 

The oath of allegiance to the Pope pi-escribed by this same council has 
already been given. See p. 60, 



82 PERILS. — ROMANISM. 

cepts the Pope's right to dictate his behefs and acts, of 
what avail are his Uberal sympathies? He is simply the 
instrument of the absolute and intolerant papal will. His 
sympathies can assert themselves and control his life only 
as he breaks with the Pope, that is, ceases to be a Roman 
Catholic. I fear we have little ground to expect that 
many would thus break with the Pope, were a distinct 
issue raised. Everyone born a Roman Catholic is suck- 
led on authority . His training affects every fiber of his 
mental constitution. He has been taught that he must 
not judge for himself, nor trust to his own convictions. 
If he finds his sympathies, his judgment and convictions 
in conflict with a papal decree, it is the perfectly natural 
result of his training for him to distrust himself. His 
will, accustomed all his life to yield to authority without 
question, is not equal to the conflict that would follow 
disobedience. How can he withstand a power able to 
inflict most serious punishment in this life, and infinite 
penalties in the next? Only now and then will one 
resist and suffer the consequences, in the spirit of the 
Captain in Beaumont and Fletcher's poem ' ' The Sea 
Voyage." Juletta tells the Captain and his company: 

" Why, slaves, 'tis in our power to hang ye." 

The Captain replies : 

"Very likely, 
'Tis in our powers, then, to be hanged and scorn ye." 

Modern times afford an excellent illustration of what 
may be expected when liberal prelates, strongly opposed 
to ultramontanism, are brought to the crucial test. 
Many members of the Vatican Council (1870) vigorously 
withstood the dogma of papal infallibility, among whom, 
says Professor Schaff , ' ' were the prelates most distin- 
guished for learning and position." Many of them 
spoke and wrote against the dogma. Archbishop Ken- 
drick, of St. Louis, published in Naples an ' ' irrefragable 
argument " ^ against it. The day before the decisive vote 



1 Dr. Schaff. 



PERILS. — ROMAiq'ISM. 83 

was to be taken, more than a hundred bishops and arch- 
bishops, members of the opposition, left the council and 
departed from Rome rather than face defeat. But these 
moderate and liberal Romanists, including the several 
American prelates who had belonged to the opposition, all 
submitted, and published to their respective flocks the 
obnoxious decree which some of them had shown to be 
contrary to history and to reason. It must be remem- 
bered that these men were the most liberal and among 
the most able in the church. In view of the fact that 
their opposition thus utterly collapsed, what reason have 
we to expect that liberal Romanists in this country, who 
have already assented to the infallibility of the Pope, 
will ever violate their oath of obedience to him? If 
the liberality of avowed opponents of ultramontanism 
yielded to papal authority, what reason is there to think 
the liberality of avowed ultramontanists will ever resist 
it? 

Moreover it should be borne in mind that the more 
moderate Roman Catholics in the United States are gen- 
erally those who in childhood had the benefit of our 
public schools, and their intelligence and liberality are 
due chiefly to the training there received. In the public 
schools they learned to think and were largely Amer- 
icanized by associating with American children. But 
their children are being subjected to very different in- 
fluences in the parochial schools. They are there given 
a training calculated to make them narrow and bigoted ; 
and, being separated as much as possible from all Prot- 
estant children, they grow up suspicious of Protestants, 
and so thoroughly sectarianized and Romanized as to 
be well protected against the broadening and American- 
izing influences of our civilization in after life.^ 



1 It is shown in the following chapter that the parochial school has come 
to stay. It is the avowed purpose of the hierarchy to bring all Roman 
Catholic children under its instruction. That instruction is thoroughly 
ultramontane and is well calculated to destroy all tendencies toward mod- 
erate or liberal Romanism in the rising generation. Familiar Explanation 
of Catholic Doctrine, by Rev, M, Miiller (Benziger Brothers, 1888), is a 



84 PERILS. — ROMAi^ISM. 

We have seen the fundamental principles of our free 
institutions laid side by side with some of those of 
Romanism, expressed in the words of the highest possible 
authorities in the Roman Catholic Church ; and thus pre- 
sented they have declared for themselves the inherent 
contradiction which exists between them. 

It has been shown that it is the avowed purpose of 
Romanists to " make America Catholic." 

It has been shown that this could not be done without 
bringing into active conflict the diametrically opposed 
principles of Romanism and of the Republic, thus forc- 
ing all Romanists in the United States to choose between 
the two masters, both of whom they now profess to 
serve. 

It has been shown that Roman Catholic training, from 



Roman Catechism, used in the parochial schools, bearing the imprimatur 
of Cardinal Gibbons and strongly commended by many Roman prelates. 
The following extracts are from No. IV, of the series. " The Pope could 
not discharge his office as the teacher of all nations, unless he were able 
with infallible certainty to proscribe and condemn doctrines, logical, 
scientific, physical, metaphysical, or political of any kind, which are at 
variance with the Word of God, and imperil the integrity and purity of the 
faith, or the salvation of souls " (p. 126). The italics are in all cases Father 
Miiller's. Note the words "■political of any kind.'" "To be separated 
from the divine authority of the Pope, is to be separated from God, and to 
have no place in the Kingdom of Christ" (p. 126). "The church only can 
judge how far her authority goes .... where the boundary line is to be 
drawn, and in what attitude we have to place ourselves as to certain sub- 
jects, these things are altogether beyond our power or our right, and are 
wholly within the judgment of the Apostolic See " (p. 127). The writer de- 
votes eighteen pages to inculcating the infallibility of the Pope. 

Twenty-five pages are devoted to " Reasons why no salvation is possible 
outside the Roman Catholic Church." " Christ has solemnly declared that 
only those will be saved, who have done God's will on earth as explained, 
not by private interpretation, but by the infallible teaching of the Roman 
Catholic Church" (p. 163). "All those who wish to be saved, must die 
united to the Catholic Church; for out of her there is no salvation " (p. 164). 
" Any one separated from her (the church), hoivever praiseworthy a life 
he may think he leads, by this crime alone, i. e., by his separation from the 
unity of Christ, he will be debarred from life eternal, and the tvrath of God 
will remain upon him " (Appendix, p. 9). This doctrine is iterated and 
reiterated a dozen times on a single page (p. 7. Appendix). The Allocution of 
Pius IX. to the Cardinals, December 17, 1847, is quoted: "But quite recently 
—we shudder to say it,— certain men have not hesitated to slander us by say- 



PERILS.— ROMANISM. 85 

childhood up, is calculated to disqualify the mind for 
independent action, and renders it highly improbable 
that any considerable number of even moderate and 
liberal Eomanists would, in the supposed event, forsake 
their allegiance to the Pope. 

V. The rate of growth, therefore, of Romanism in the 
United States becomes a matter of vital importance. 

Many who are well acquainted with the true character 
of Romanism are indifferent to it because not aware of 
its rapid growth among us. They tell us, and truly, 
that Rome loses great numbers of adherents here 
through the influence of our free schools, free institu- 
tions, and the strong pervasive spirit of independence 
which is so hostile to priestly authority. But let us not 
congratulate ourselves too soon. The losses of Romanism 

ing that we share in their folly, favor that most wicked system, and think so 
benevolently of every class of mankind as to suppose that not only the sons 
of the church, but that the rest also, however alienated from Catholic unity, 
are alike in the way of salvation, and may arrive at everlasting life. We 
are at a loss, from horror, to find words to express our detestation of this 
fiew and atrocious injustice that is done us." 

The writer continues: "Mark well, Pius IX. uttered these solemn words 
against 'certain men,' whom he calls the enemies of the Catholic Faith— he 
means liberal-minded Catholics, as is evident from his words, which, on 
July 28, 1873, he addressed to the members of the Catholic Society of Quim- 
per: ' Tell the members of the Catholic Society that, on the numerous oc- 
casions on which we have censured those who held liberal opinions, we did 
not mean those who hate the church, whom it would have been useless to 
reprove, but those Catholics xcho have adopted so-called liberal opinions: 
who preserve and foster the hidden poison of liberal principles.^'" Pius 
continues: " To entertain opinions contrary to this Catholic faith is to be an 
impious wretch.'" (Appendix p. 8). This is what the rising generation of 
Roman Catholics is being taught concerning " liberal Catholics." 

I can prolong this note to quote only a few words from the instructions 
given concerning the relations of church and state. " Therefore, the church 
is not to accommodate her legislation to the legislation of the state, but that 
the state laws must not conflict with the laws of the church." (p. 199). 
After enumerating some laws which Romanists do not like, the writer con- 
tinues: " Just here let us lay down an incontestable platform. We have a 
right to secure just legislation and wipe out unjust and scandalous laws. 
We have that right on the ground of citizenship and we mean to exercise 
every right in that category, whether the hordes and mobs howl, sneer and 
jeer, or quietly let us do so." (p. 200). 

Such is the mold in which the Roman Catholic mind of the coming gen- 
eration is being cast. 



S6 PERILS. — ROMAKISM. 

in the United States are not necessarily the gains of 
Protestantism. When a man, born in the Eoman Cath- 
olic Church, loses confidence in the only faith of which 
he has any knowledge, instead of examining Protestant- 
ism he probably sinks into skepticism, which is even 
worse than superstition. Romanism is chiefly responsi- 
ble for German and French infidelity. For, when a 
mind to which thought and free inquiry have'been for- 
bidden as a crime attains its intellectual majority the 
largeness of liberty is not enough; it reacts into license 
and excess. Skepticism and infidelity are the legitimate 
children of unreasoning and superstitious credulity, and 
the grandchildren of Rome. Apostate Romanists are 
swellmg our most dangerous classes. Unaccustomed to 
thmk for themselves, and having thrown off authority, 
they become the easy victims of the wildest and most 
dangerous propagandists. 

But, notwithstanding the great losses sustained by 
Romanism in the United States,^ it is grow^ing with 
great rapidity. No one knows what the present Roman 
Catholic population is, and estimates vary widely. 
Cardinal Gibbons at the Baltimore Congress in 1889 
placed it at 9,000,000. Many Roman Catholic writers 
think it is larger. Bishop Hogan, of Missouri, estimates 
it at 13,000,000. But this is wild. No doubt the figures 
of "Sadlier's Catholic Directory " (1890) are large 
enough. This gives the Romanist population as 8,277,- 
039. These figures are probably as reliable as earlier 
ones from the same source, and, therefore, serve as a 
basis for comparison to estimate the rate of growth. 

In 1800 the Roman Catholic population was 100,000. 
There was then in the United States one Romanist to 
every 53 of the whole population; in 1850, one to 14.3; in 
1870, one to 8.3; in 1880, one to 7.7; in 1890, one to 7.5. 
Thus it appears that, wonderful as the growth of our 



* According to Roman Catholic authorities, the members they have lost 
here, together with their descendants, now number upwards of ten millions 
-^considerably more than the present Romanist population. 



PERILS. — ROMAKiSM. S? 

population has been since 1800, that of the Eoman 
Church in this country has been still more rapid. Dr. 
Dorchester in his valuable and inspiring work, " Problem 
of Religious Progress," easily shows that the actual gains 
of Protestantism in the United States, during the 
century, have been much larger than those of Romanism, 
and seems disposed, in consequence, to dismiss all 
anxiety as to the issue of the race between them. But it 
is relative rather than actual gains which are prophetic. 
We find that for the first eighty years of the century 
the rate of growth of the Roman Catholic Church was 
greater than that of any one Protestant church or of all 
Protestant churches combined. From 1800 to 1880 the 
population increased nine-fold, the membership of all 
evangelical churches twenty-seven-fold, and the Roman- 
ist population sixty-three-fold. 1 Not much unportance, 
however, should be attached to this comparison, as the 
Roman Catholic population was insignificant in 1800, and 
a small addition sufficed to increase it several-fold. But 
in 1850 that population was nearly one-half as large as 
the membership of all evangelical churches. Let us, 
then, look at their relative progress since that time. 
From 1850 to 1880 the population increased 116 per cent. , 
the communicants of evangelical churches 185 per cent. , 
and the Romanist population 294 per cent. During the 
same period the number of evangelical churches in- 
creased 125 per cent., and the number of evangelical 
ministers 173 per cent. , while Roman Catholic churches 
increased 447 per cent, and priests 391 per cent. 

In 1800 priests were 1.9 per cent, of the number of 
evangelical ministers; in 1850, 5.0 per cent. ; in 1870, 8.3 
per cent.; and in 1880, 9.1 per cent. In 1850, Roman 
Catholic churches were 2. 8 per cent, of the number of 
evangelical churches; in 1870, 5.4 per cent. ; and in 1880, 



1 Some criticism has been offered on the writer's comparison of the Roman 
Catholic population with the evangelical church membership instead of 
evangelical population. But the comparison is of rates of increase, not of 
actual numbers, and if made with the evangelical population instead of 
membership, the resulfe would have been identical. 



88 



PERILS. — ROMANISM. 



6.8 per cent. In 1800 the Roman Catholic population 
was 21 per cent, of the number of evangelical church 

The following tables, showing the actual increase of evangelical com 
municants and of Roman Catholics are compiled from Dr. Dorchester's 
Problem of Religious Progress, from the church statistics of The Indepen- 
dent for 1890 (July 31), and from the Eleventh Census. 



Year. 


Evangelical 

Churches or 

c;ongregations. 


Ordained 

Ministers. 


Communicants. 


Population of 

THE 

United States. 


1800 


3,030 


2,651 


364,872 


. 5,305,925 


1850 


43,072 


25,555 


3,529,988 


23,191,876 


1870 


70,148 


47,609 


6,673,396 


38,558,371 


1880 


97,090 


69,870 


10,06 >,963 


50,152,866 


1890 


142,599 


93,776 


13,417,180 


62,480,540 



Year. 


^''If.S^^^r' P— • P0Pn.ATI0N. 


1800 




50 


100,000 


1850 


1,222 


1,302 


1,614,000 


1870 


3,806 


8,966 


4,600,000 


1880 


6,6221 


6,402 


6,867,830 


1890 


7,523 

# 


8,332 


8,277,039 



^ Estimated. 



PERILS. — ROMANISM. 89 

members ; in 1850, 45 per cent. ; in 1870, 68 per cent. ; and 
in 1880, 63 per cent.^ Thus we see that for the first 
eighty years of the century the Roman Catholics gained 
rapidly both on the population and on the evangelical 
churches. But the latest statistics show that between 
1880 and 1890 the tide turned. In 1880 the Romanist 
population was 63 per cent, of the number of evangelical 
communicants; in 1890, 61 per cent. In 1880 their 
priests were 9.1 per cent, of the number of evangelical 
ministers ; in 1890, 8.8 per cent. In 1880 their churches 
were 6.8 per cent, of the number of evangelical churches; 
in 1890, 5.2 per cent. This relative loss since 1880 has 
not been due to any lack of vitality, for, as we have 
already seen, Romanism has gained on the population 
during these ten years, but to the more vigorous growth 
of the Protestant churches, which during this time have 
been not a little quickened. 

Whether this relative loss, however, marks a perma- 
nent or only temporary turn in the tide does not yet ap- 
pear. It must be remembered, first, that this loss is 
only slight ; and, secondly, that the now pronounced pa- 
rochial school policy can hardly fail to keep great num- 
bers in the Roman communion, which through the broad- 
ening influence of the public school would have left it, 
thus greatly stimulating the rate of growth of that 
church in the future. 

But this is not all. Rome, with characteristic fore- 
sight, is concentrating her strength in the western terri- 
tories. As the West is to dominate the nation, she 
intends to dominate the West. In the United States 
a little more than one-eighth of the population is 
Catholic ; in the territories taken together, more 



1 The relative loss from 1870 to 1880 is probably only apparent and due to 
an overestimate of the Roman Catholic population in 1870. It w^ill be ob- 
served that the figures given for the Roman Catholic population that year in 
the foregoing table are "round numbers." It is far more probable that 
their population increased at about an even rate with their churches and 
priests from 1850 to 1880, than that it increased much more rapidly than 
churches and priests from 1850 to 1870 and much less rapidly from 1870 to 1880, 



90 PERILS. — ROMAKISM. 

than one-third. 1 In the whole country there are 
not quite two-thirds as many Romanists as there 
are members of evangehcal churches. Not including 
Arizona and New Mexico, which have a large native 
Roman Catholic population, the six remaining territories 
in 1880 had four times as many Romanists as there were 
members in all Protestant denominations collectively; 
and including Arizona and New Mexico, Rome had 
eighteen times as many as all Protestant bodies. 2 We 
are told that the native Romanists of Arizona and New 
Mexico are not as energetic as the Protestants who are 
pushing into those territories. True, but they are ener- 
getic enough to be counted. The most wretched mem- 
bers of society count as much at the polls as the best, 
and often much more. It is poor consolation which is 
drawn from the ignorance of any portion of our popula- 
tion. Those degraded peoples are clay in the hands of 
the Jesuits. When the Jesuits were driven out of Ber- 
lin, they declared that they would plant themselves in 
the western territories of America. And they are there 
to-day with empires in their brains. Expelled for their 
intrigues even from Roman Catholic countries, Spain, 
Portugal, France, Italy, Austria, Mexico, Brazil, and 
other states, they are free to colonize in the great West, 
and are there, purposing to Romanize and control our 
western empire. Rev. J. H. Warren, D.D., writes from 
California, in which State there are four times as many 
Romanists as Protestant church members : ' ' The Roman 
Catholic power is fast becoming an overwhelming evil. 
Their schools are everywhere, and number probably 200 
in the State. Their new college of St. Ignatius is, we 



1 These are the figures for 1880. On this point the statistics of the Eleventh 
Census are not yet available. 

' The writer has been criticised at this point also for comparing Roman 
QaXh.o\\c population with evangelical church membership instead of popula- 
tion (which latter is something not deflnitely known). But the critics miss 
the writer's point. The comparison is not between the strength of Roman- 
ism and Protestantism in the West, but between the relative strength of 
Romanism in the whole country and in the territories. 



tEHlLS. — ROMAKISM. 91 

are told, the largest, finest, best equipped of its kind in 
the United States. They blow no trumpets, are sparing 
of statistics, but are at work night and day to break 
down the institutions of the country, beginning with the 
public schools. As surely as we live, so surely will the 
conflict come, and it will be a hard one." ^ 

Lafayette, born a Romanist, and knowing well the 
nature of Romanism and its antipathy to liberty, said : 
"If the liberties of the American people are ever de- 
stroyed, they will fall by the hands of the Romish 
clergy."^ 

1 Quoted by Dr. E. P. Goodwin, in a sermon before the American Home 
Missionary Society, May 9, 1880. 

2 From the title page of The Confessions of a French Catholic Priest, 
1837. Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, who wrote the introduction to the book, 
says in it: " The declaration of Lafayette, which the author has placed as a 
motto in the title page of this book, is a beautiful evidence of the sagacity 
and vigilance of liberty's great friend. Lafayette, like a veteran mariner, 
was ever watching the political horizon for the indications of danger to his 
beloved America, fend the danger to which his latest warnings pointed was 
this very covert political attack, which is in full operation upon our soil at 
this moment ; an attack the more dangerous because it shields itself under 
the mask of religion, and cries out ' persecution ' at every attempt to expose 
its true, its political character." These words are as applicable to-day as 
they were when written a generation ago. 

Prof. Morse, in a foot-note contained in the introduction quoted above, 
says: " It may not be amiss here to state that the declaration of Lafayette 
in the motto in question was repeated by him to more than one American. 
The very last interview which I had with Lafayette on the morning of my 
departure from Paris, full of his usual concern for America, he made use of 
the same warning, and in a letter which I received from him but a few days 
after at Havre, he alludes to the whole subject with the hope expressed thatl 
would make known tha real state of things in Europe to my countrymen ; at 
the same time charging it upon me as a sacred duty as an American, to ac- 
quaint them with the fears which were entertained by the friends of repub- 
lican liberty, in regard to our country. If I have labored with any success 
to arouse the attention of my countrymen to the dangers foreseen by Lafay- 
ette, I owe it in a great degree to having acted in conformity to his often re- 
peated injunctions." 

Letters might be given from gentlemen quoting language of the same im- 
port, but stronger, which Lafayette had used to them. It seems worth 
while to quote from Prof. Morse at some length because the authenticity of 
the above saying "of Lafayette has been denied by Bishop Kain, of Wheeling, 
W. Va., and by other Roman Catholics. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PERILS. — RELIGION AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Democracy necessitates the public school. Important 
as is the school to any civilized people, it is exception- 
ally so to us, for in the United States the common school 
has a function which is peculiar, viz., to Americanize 
the children of immigrants. The public school is the 
principal digestive organ of the body politic. By means 
of it the children of strange and dissimilar races which 
come to us are, in one generation, assimilated and made 
Americans. It is the heterogeneous character of our 
population (especially in cities) which threatens the 
integrity of our public school system and at the same 
time renders it supremely important to maintain that 
integrity. Moreover, apart from consequences to the 
school system, the policy which is finally adopted by the 
American people touching religion and the public 
schools concerns most intimately the welfare both of 
our youth and of the State. 

Public opinion as to the true relations of the State to 
religious instruction is as yet much divided or unformed. 
The schools are criticised both on the ground that they 
are godless and on the ground that they are sectarian, 
because they have too little religion and again because 
they have too much. Two theories which threaten the 
well-being of the schools and of the State demand our 
attention : — 

First, that of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, which 
holds that education should be distinctly religious, 
which of course means Roman Catholic. Vague or gen- 
eral instruction will not suffice, there must be inculcated 
the system of doctrine found in the Roman catechism. 



PERILS. — RELIGIOK AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 93 

It holds that religious and secular education cannot be 
safely separated. Inasmuch, therefore, as the State will 
not teach Roman Catholic doctrine in the public schools, 
parochial schools become necessary. 

It is held that the public schools are in fact Protes- 
tant, and that Catholics are taxed to support them while 
they carry the burden of their own parochial schools. 
They complain that this is an injustice which can be 
removed only by the division of the school fund, and 
that to divide this fund between the " Protestant " and 
Catholic schools pro rata would be only equitable. To 
secure such division is their avowed policy. 

This position is to be regretted but not to be wondered 
at. It was inevitable that the parochial school should be 
opened and attendance upon it made obligatory. The 
hierarchy could not otherwise be true to the spirit and 
genius of their church. The conflict between the paro- 
chial and the public schools goes far deeper than the 
question of religious instruction. It involves the whole 
subject of education, its aim and methods. The object of 
the pubHc school is to make good citizens. The object 
of the parochial school is to make good Catholics. The 
public school seeks to give both knowledge and disci- 
pline, not only truth but the power to find truth. The 
parochial school aims to lead, rather than to train the 
mind ; to produce a spirit of submission rather than of 
independence. The one system is calculated to arouse, 
the other to repress, the spirit of inquiry. The one aims 
at self-control, the other at control by superiors. The 
one seeks to secure intelligent obedience to rightful 
authority; the other unquestioning obedience to arbi- 
trary authority. In a trial held in one of the courts of 
New York City, November, 1888, Monsignor Preston, 
vicar-general of New York, was asked on the witness 
stand if Roman Catholics must obey their bishops, 
whether right or wrong. He repUed, "Yes ! " and, when 
the question was repeated, answered, ' ' They must obey, 
right or wrong." (Notes of hearing before the Commit- 
tee on Education and Labor, United States Senate, page 



94 PERILS. — RELIGIOI^ AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

79.) The free school system is intended to build up soci- 
ety by developing in the pupil a strong individuality, 
while Catholic education strengthens the church at the 
expense of individuality. This is frankly admitted by 
the late Father Hecker, who was one of the ablest as 
well as most loyal writers of the Eoman Catholic 
Church in the United States. In his recent work, pub- 
lished just before his death, he says: "The defense of 
the church and the salvation of the soul were ordinarily 
secured at the expense necessarily of those virtues which 
properly go to make up the strength of Christian man- 
hood."! (The salvation of the soul at the expense of 
Christian virtues!) "In the principles above briefly 
stated," he continues, "may in a great measure be 
found the explanation why fifty million of Protestants 
have had generally a controlling influence, for a long 
period, over two hundred million Catholics in directing 
the movements and destinies of nations. "^ 

But doubtless the decree of the Third Plenary Council 
in 1884, ordering the establishment of parochial schools, 
was due quite as much to a significant fact as to the 
Roman Catholic theory of education. That fact is the 
heavy loss sustained by the Roman Catholic Church 
among the descendants of immigrants in the United 
States. The editor of the Irish World, who is called by 
an intelligent Catholic writer "a master of statistics," 
has made an elaborate analysis of the population, from 
which he infers that there are now living in the United 
States ten million persons, who as descendants of 
Roman Catholics ought to be members of the Roman 
Church, but who are lost to it. This loss is commonly 
attributed to the influence of the public school. Says 
the Catholic Review of August 31, 1889: "The parochial 
school is necessary because Catholic children cannot be 
brought up Catholic and attend the public school. This 
is a recognized fact. ... At the present moment the 



» The Church and the Age, p. 16. 
2 Ibid., p. 17. 



PERILS. — RELIGION AKD THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 95 

Catholic Church in America depends more on the faith 
of the Cathohc immigrant than on the faith of the gen- 
eration which has received its education in the pubhc 
schools. . . . We see no way of making them (young 
Americans) Catholics than by the parochial school. 
Our conscience forces us to take up the work." 

Attention has been called to the ground of action on 
the part of the hierarchy to show that there is no possi- 
bility of compromise with it. If the Bible in the public 
school were the cause of the Catholic secession there- 
from, its removal might stop the movement ; but it is 
not the cause, and its removal would be a fruitless sacri- 
fice. We may as well recognize the fact that the paro- 
chial school has come to stay, regardless of the treat- 
ment of religion in the public schools. ^ It is a necessary 
part of a great educational system, which, to provide 
for its 3, 194 2 parochial schools, has its teaching brother- 
hoods and sisterhoods, its 102 colleges, its 35 theo- 
logical seminaries, and to crown all its great Catho- 
lic American University at Washington, for which 
$1,000,000 have already been subscribed, and which, 
including the endowments of chairs, we are told will cost 
between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000. 

Here, then, is a theory of education which can no 
more be harmonized with the American theory than 
water can be made to coalesce with oil ; here is the dis- 
covery that it is absolutely necessary to act on this the- 
ory in order to prevent disastrous results to the Catho- 
lic Church ; here is an elaborate educational system for 
whose equipment many millions of dollars have already 
been invested ; and finally, the authoritative declarations 
of the Catholic Church referred to in the preceding 
chapter (p. 75) place beyond all doubt the attitude of the 
hierarchy toward the public schools, the permanence of 



1 " We must muliply them (parochial schools) till every Catholic child in 
the land shall have the means of education vv^ithin its reach." Pastoral Let- 
ter, Acta et Decreta Concilii, Baltimorensis Tertii, p. Ixxxv. 

a See Catholic Directory for 1890. 



90 PERILS. — RELIGION Ai^D THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

the educational policy which they have adopted, and 
the impossibility of compromise. 

We must not forget that there are many Roman Cath- 
olic laymen who prefer, and who dare to patronize, the 
public schools, but they have no share in the authority 
of the Church. The hierarchy has thoroughly and irrev- 
ocably committed the Church against the public school, 
and infallibility cannot retreat ; to do so would be to 
confess itself fallible. 

It has seemed worth while to show that the educa- 
tional policy of the RoDian Catholic Church must needs, 
remain fixed, because the recognition of this fact should 
aid the public toward a fixed policy touching religious 
instruction in the public schools. 

This cleavage of the population along religious lines is 
greatly to be regretted. It is un-American. It carries 
the shadow on the dial of progress back from the nine- 
teenth to the seventeenth century. Intercourse tends to 
eliminate differences and to make a population homoge- 
neous. Non-intercourse nourishes suspicion, prejudice, 
and religious bitterness, of which the world has had 
quite enough already. There are many reasons why 
children of different religions and different races, of rich 
and poor, of all classes of society, should mingle in the 
public school. This segregation of the Catholic children, 
though well intended, inflicts injury upon society and a 
greater injury upon the Catholic children themselves. 
How can the evil results which must necessarily attend 
the establishment of parochial schools be minimized? 
Certainly not by secularizing the public schools. This 
remedy was tried to a considerable extent, when the 
question of the Bible in the public schools was so widely 
discussed some twenty years ago. Instead of conciliat- 
ing the Catholic priesthood, it only put into their mouth 
the cry which they are using to-day, with the greatest 
effect upon their own people, viz. , that the public schools 
are " godless." 

There are Roman Catholics who, as has been said, are 
*' more Catholic than Roman,"— men who have much of 



PEEILS. — RELIGION Aiq^D THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 97 

the American spirit, who have learned in large meas- 
ure to think and act for themselves (and who are, there- 
fore, rather "off color," as Romanists). Many such 
Catholics patronize the public school, and it is to be 
hoped will continue so to do. Only the more liberal- 
minded will dare to disregard the commands of the 
priests, and such, I take it, will not object to what little 
religious instruction their children receive in the public 
school. 

Of course the mischief which the parochial schools do 
will be in proportion to the number of children they 
draw off. The best remedy is to make the public 
schools as good as possible, so manifestly and so vastly 
superior that many Catholic parents will refuse to sacri- 
fice the interests of their children at the behest of the 
priest. 

It may be remarked in passing that the action of the 
hierarchy in establishing parochial schools, and the 
arguments with which they have defended that action, 
may have an unexpected and unwelcome effect. The 
prelates of the Catholic Church have of late taken pains 
to assert that Romanism is thoroughly American in 
spirit, and in beautiful harmony with American institu- 
tions; but when they insist that our public schools, 
which are among the most cherished of our institutions, 
and deemed essential to the preservation of our liberties, 
are wholly unfit for Catholic children, and cannot be 
attended by such without sin, they unintentionally 
acknowledge and publicly declare that there is an inher- 
ent conflict between Romanism and free institutions. 
Every American recognizes the assimilating and Ameri- 
canizing power of the public school. When, therefore, 
the Catholic hierarchy and press assert that the only 
way to make a good Catholic out of a child is to keep 
him out of the public school and separate him from 
American children, it is an acknowledgment that 
Romanism is un-American and represents an alien civili- 
zation. 

When the full force of this acknowledgment is appre- 



98 PERILS. — EELIGION AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

ciated, it will tend to create a general distrust of the 
Church, and to alienate from it Catholics who have 
become in any considerable degree Americanized. 

A few words concerning the Catholic claim for a 
division of the school funds, and we will leave this 
branch of our subject. If this claim were granted, a 
similar claim from Lutherans or Episcopalians, or the 
many parents who choose to send their children to pri- 
vate schools could not be denied. Such a concession 
would be liable, perhaps likely, to result in the depletion 
and final destruction of the public school. 

But the question is not simply one of policy. To 
grant this claim would be to violate a principle in the 
hearty support of which Americans are singularly 
united, viz., the entire separation of Church and State. 
At this point the Catholics meet us with the argument 
that the public schools are Protestant. "Why should 
the State support Protestant schools and not Catholic? 
The support of the latter would be no more in violation 
of the aforesaid principle than the support of the 
former, and equity demands it." The argument is spe- 
cious. Its fallacy lies in the fact that the public schools 
are not Protestant. What constitutes a school Protest- 
ant? The fact that the teacher is a Protestant does not 
make the school so any more than the fact that Presi- 
dent Harrison is a Presbyterian constitutes the United 
States government Presbyterian. Nor does the fact 
that most of the pupils belong to Protestant families 
make the school denominational. If the religious pref- 
erence of teachers or scholars gave denominational 
character to the school, the public schools, in many 
quarters of our large cities, would be emphatically 
Roman Catholic. But no Catholic would admit that any 
public school in the United States was Catholic, even 
though the teacher and every scholar were a Romanist, 
nor would it be, unless distinctively Roman Catholic 
doctrine were taught. The public schools are not Prot- 
estant, because distinctively Protestant doctrines are 
not taught in them. 



PERILS. — RELIGI0:N^ Al^D THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 99 

When the public fully appreciates the fact that the 
Eoman Catholic school policy is fixed, and that conces- 
sions are useless, it would not be strange if there were a 
tendency developed to Protestantize the public schools; 
but against this we must caution ourselves, if for no 
other reason, because in the eyes of the average voter it 
would make valid the Catholic argument for the division 
of the school fund ; against which division every true 
American must set his face without variableness or the 
faintest shadow of turning. Eemember the wise words 
of President Garfield: ^ " It would be dangerous to our 
institutions to apply any portion of the revenue of the 
nation or the state to the support of sectarian schools; " 
and those of General Grant, 2 "Encourage free schools, 
and resolve that not one dollar appropriated to* them 
shall be applied to the support of any sectarian school." 

The second theory touching religion and the public 
schools which demands our attention is that of the secu- 
larists, among whom are counted many Christian men 
as well as all Jews and agnostics. 

According to this theory the province of the State is 
wholly secular ; its true attitude is that of absolute neu- 
trality toward all forms of religious belief and unbelief ; 
to teach religion in any form is to do violence to the 
rights of certain classes of citizens. 

The Jewish Exponent ^ quotes Eabbi Calisch as say- 
ing: " The public schools are an outgrowth of our broad 
American republicanism, which, in the interest of free- 
dom, forbids any union or partnership of Church and 
State. Hence, in the name of the Jewish brotherhood 
all over this country, and in the name of persons of dif- 
fering views on religious matters everywhere, I wish to 
protest against the manner in which our public schools 
are conducted. It is a favorite claim of the churches," 
he continues, ' ' that this is a Christian country, and this, 



1 Letter of Acceptance, July 12, 1880. 

2 To the Army of the Tennessee, Des Moines, 1876. 
8 August 16, 1889. 



100 PEKILS. — RELIGION AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

SO far as it is confined to the church instruction or fam- 
ily instruction, is unobjectionable and right. The idea 
of Christ, however, is not confined to such teaching. 
It is, with all its religious dependencies, made a part of 
our public-school instruction. It is to be denounced as 
in violation of the fundamental theory of our govern- 
ment. I demand in the name of justice that the princi- 
ple of law designed to protect all in their religious free- 
dom be recognized." 

The platform of the Liberal League of the United 
States contains the following: "We demand that all 
religious services now sustained by the government 
shall be abolished, and especially that the use of the 
Bible in the public schools, whether ostensibly as a text- 
book or avowedly as a book of religious worship, shall 
be prohibited." 

This theory of the secularists is built on a wrong applica- 
tion of a right principle, viz. , the complete separation of 
Church and State. Of all the great experiments which 
are being tried in this New World, none is more distinc- 
tively American than the entire separation of Church 
and State, and none of our principles has more abun- 
dantly justified itself. We must be willing to follow it 
wherever logic shall require, but our secularist friends, 
being compelled to go with it one mile, go with it twain. 
They fail to distinguish, it seems to me, between church 
and religion. Kabbi Isaacs, in the Forum, i referring to 
the readings of a proposed manual for use in the public 
schools, says, "They are distinctly religious, and the 
State cannot sanction religious teachings in its schools 
any more than in its governmental offices. Such action 
is entirely beyond its province. Church and State must 
be forever separate." As if the use of religious readings 
in the public schools compromised that principle. 

As a matter of fact our government is, and has always 
been, religious. Says Chief Justice Shea, ' ' Our own 
government, and the laws by which it is administered, 

1 October, 1888. 



PERILS. — RELIGION A]^D THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 101 

are in every part — legislative, judicial, and executive — 
Christian in nature, form, and purpose." ^ In his 
"Institutes of International Law," Judge Story says, 
" One of the beautiful traits of our municipal jurispru- 
dence is that Christianity is part of the common law 
from which it seeks the sanction of its rights, and by 
which it endeavors to regulate its doctrine." Says the 
great interpreter of the Constitution, Webster: "There 
is nothing we look for with more certainty than the gen- 
eral principle, that Christianity is part of the law of the 

land general, tolerant Christianity, independent 

of sects and parties." ^ Many other authorities to the 
same effect might be cited. 

When the fathers added to the Constitution the princi- 
ple of strict separation of Church and State, they did 
not intend to divorce the State from all religion. Says 
Judge Story, speaking of the time when the Constitution 
was adopted, ' ' The attempt to level all religions, and 
make it a matter of State policy to hold all in utter 
indifference, would have created universal disapproba- 
tion, if not universal indignation. " ^ The principle of 
the separation of Church and State undoubtedly forbids 
sectarian instruction in the State schools ; but we have 
the highest legal and judicial authority for saying that 
it does not forbid undenominational religious teaching. 
"But," it will be asked, " does not the teaching of relig- 
ious doctrine which is undenominational violate the 
rights of agnostics quite as much as inculcating the dog- 
mas of one sect wrongs the adherents of others? " By no 
means; because the teaching of the three great funda- 
mental doctrines which are common to all monotheistic 
religions is essential to the perpetuity of free institutions, 
while the inculcation of sectarian dogmas is not. 
These three doctrines are that of the existence of God, 



1 Nature and Form of the American Government, p. 35. 

2 Webster's Works, VI. p. 176. 

3 Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Boston, 1833, 
Subject discussed at length pp. 680 sq. 



102 PERILS. — RELIGION AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

the i7n'mo7^tality of man and mail's accountability. 
These doctrines are held in common by all Protestants, 
Catholics and Jews. There are comparatively few in 
this country who do not hold them ; and the children of 
these few should be taught these fundamental truths 
of religion, not because agnostics are in the minority, 
for questions of conscience can be settled neither by 
majorities nor by authority, but because the necessities 
of the State are above individual rights. The State, 
when its necessities require, does not hesitate to draft 
into the army a citizen who has conscientious scruples 
against war. The government, utterly disregarding 
individual conscience, inclinations and rights, forces 
him away from his occupation and family, and exposes 
him to injury and death. 

The question is not, as some would seem to think, 
whether religion has a right to be taught in the public 
schools, but whether the government has a right to teach 
it. That right is beyond question, if the necessities of 
the State require. Let us look at this more closely. 

' ' If there is any incontestable maxim on the rights of 
nations, it is that laid down by the illustrious Bossuet, 
in his defense of the declaration of the clergy of France, 
in 1682, that all sovereign power is sufficient to itself, 
and is provided by God with all the power that is neces- 
sary for its own preservation." ^ Self-preservation is 
the first law of states as of individuals. If the State has 
the right to exist, manifestly it has the right to do or 
require whatever is necessary to perpetuate its existence. 
To refuse this right to the State is to attack its life. As 
Shy lock said : — 

" You take my house, when you do take the prop 
That doth sustain my house ; you take my life 
When you do take the means whereby I live." 

No one will deny that popular intelligence is essential 
to successful popular government ; and popular morality 

1 A Glimpse of the Great Secret Society, p. 43. 



PERILS. — RELIGIOK AKB THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 103 

is no less a political necessity than intelligence. These 
statements may be regarded as axiomatic. Here is the 
bed rock on which rest compulsory educational laws, the 
right of taxation for the public schools, and the right and 
duty of giving religious instruction in them. 

Our common school system is not based on the doc- 
trine that each child is entitled to an education. So far 
as individual right is concerned, under our theory of 
government a man is as much entitled to demand of the 
State capital on which to begin business, as to demand 
for his children that intellectual capital which we call 
an education. Both might be done in a socialistic state, 
but our government is neither socialistic nor "paternal." 
Why does the State take money from your pocket to 
educate my child? Not on the ground that an education 
is a good thing for him, but on the ground that his igno- 
rance would be dangerous to the State. This may be 
*' low ground, " but it is not marshy. In like manner, 
the State must teach in its schools fundamental religious 
truths, not because the child should know them in prep- 
aration for a future existence, — the State is not con- 
cerned with the eternal welfare of its citizens, — but 
because immorality is perilous to the State, and popular 
morality cannot be secured without the sanctions of 
religion. Of course the advocacy of religion on the 
ground that it serves as moral police is not very exalted ; 
but if our ground is to be broad enough for upwards of 
60,000,000 people to stand on, it must needs be low. The 
top of the pyramid is narrow. 

Secularists deny that religious teaching is essential to 
moral instruction. It is claimed that it makes no prac- 
tical difference whether happiness or utility or the will 
of God be the ground of morality ; that whatever view 
is taken of the metaphysical ground of right, all theo- 
ries end in adopting the same practical virtues, which 
may therefore be taught quite independently of religion. 
Yes, a child may be taught that this is wrong and that is 
right without any reference to God, but the child must 
have moral training as well as moral instruction ; and 



104 PERILS. — BELIGIOK AKD THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

moral training is addressed to the will, and the will 
must be influenced by motives. The lying that is done by 
children in this country is not due to ignorance of the 
fact that lying is wrong, but to the fact that their wills 
have not been sufficiently strengthened by motives to 
truthfulness. We do not claim that religion must be 
taught in connection with morals, on the ground that it 
affords the only adequate basis of the science of ethics, 
for the children are not taught the science of ethics ; but 
on the ground that religion alone affords adequate 
motives to the practice of moral precepts. The philos- 
opher Cousin, in a report upon Public Instruction in 
Germany, referring to the fact that it is based on the 
Bible, says, "Every wise man will rejoice in this; for, 
with three-fourths of the population, morality can be 
instilled only through the medium of religion." Presi- 
dent Woolsey, in a paper on The Bible in the Public 
Schools,'^ said: "We can, in a system of morals, con- 
sidered in the abstract, separate religion from it, but in 
the practical part, even of a book on ethics, there is an 
unavoidable necessity of bringing the two into connec- 
tion." And Daniel Webster, in a Fourth of July oration, 
said: "To preserve the government we must also 
preserve morals. Morality rests on religion; if you 
destroy the foundation, the superstructure must fall. 
When the public mind becomes vitiated and corrupt, 
laws are a nullity and constitutions are waste paper." 

There are of course individuals who are agnostics or 
atheists and yet moral in life, but many if not most of 
these had Christian training in childhood, under which 
their habits became fixed. This is a very different 
thing from teaching a child that there is no God or 
leaving him uninstructed. And though there are indi- 
vidual atheists who are moral, there are no moral infidel 
communities. Plutarch says, you remember, "There 
never was a state of atheists. You may travel all over 
the world, and you may find cities without walls, with- 

1 Read before the National Council of Congregational Churches, 1877. 



PERILS. — RELIGIOi^ AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 105 

out king, without mint, without theater or gymnasium ; 
but you will nowhere find a city without a god, without 
prayer, without oracle, without sacrifice. Sooner may a 
city stand without foundations than a state without 
belief in the gods. This is the bond of all society, and the 
pillar of all legislation." Permit me to add that oft- 
quoted passage from Washington's Farewell Address, 
" Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined 
education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and 
experience both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of religious prin- 
ciple." 

All Christian secularists hold of course that the chil- 
dren should receive religious instruction, but tell us that 
it should be furnished by the home and the Sunday 
school. But how are those children to be instructed 
who are in no Sunday school, most of whom doubtless 
have little or no religious training in their homes? 
Assuming that two-thirds of all the Catholic children 
are in their Sunday schools, it leaves about one-half of 
the children and youth in the United States of school 
age, who are in no Sunday school of any kind. Will 
the secularists tell us how these children are to be 
taught "reverence for God, reverence for man, rever- 
ence for woman, reverence for law, which," it is said, 
" are the pillars of the Republic," unless they are taught 
it in the public school? It is not enough that one-half 
our children be instructed in the knowledge of God; 
not enough that one-half only reverence divine, and 
therefore human, authority; not enough that one-half 
are instructed in morals whose motives include the 
solemn sanctions of religion. Such a division of our 
population would leave our destiny in a hesitating 
balance. Popular government is by majorities. Free 
institutions are safe only when the great majority of 
the people have that reverence for law which can spring 
only from reverence for God. The most striking defect 
of young America is the lack of reverence. The spirit 
of independence and sense of equality are unfriendly to 



1©6 PERILS. — BELIGION AKD THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

it. Our youth have little reverence for their elders, for 
authority, for law, for rulers. Our irreverence as a 
people is noted by our critics. Says Matthew Arnold in 
his famous study of American civilization which 
appeared just before his death, in the Nineteenth 
Century : "If there be a discipline in which the Ameri- 
cans are wanting, it is the discipline of awe and respect. 
An austere and intense religion imposed on the Puritan 
founders the discipline of respect ; . . . . but this relig- 
ion is dying out." An eminent English clergyman, the 
Rev. Dr. Dale, who visited this country some years ago, 
wrote on his return a little sketch of his impressions of 
America, in which, after referring to the fact that the 
children of Jonathan Edwards always rose from their 
seats when their father or mother came into the room, he 
gravely informs the British public that this custom does 
not exist in any of the families that showed him hospi- 
tality! There is little reverence, and therefore little 
authority, in many American homes, except that which 
is exercised by children over their parents. The spirit 
of self-assertion, which is characteristically American, 
easily becomes impatient of restraint and often grows 
lawless. There are no children in all Christendom who 
stand in so great need, civil need, of a sense of divine 
authority as American children. Many teachers and 
school officials whose positions afford exceptional oppor- 
tunities of observation might be quoted to show how 
widespread among the young is the spirit of irreverence 
and lawlessness. A word from the school commissioner 
of Rhode Island must suffice. He says, "The spirit of 
self-assertion, of insubordination, of dislike to all re- 
straint, of open antagonism to law, — all this is far more 
prevalent to-day than ever before. " 

AH this most vitally concerns the State. Here is an 
evil which is great and prophetic of evil greater. How 
shall the State apply a remedy ? The school is the place 
where she may touch the young with molding hand. 
Shall she inspire them with a spirit of reverence by 
secularizing the schools ? by purging text-books of every 



PERILS.— RELIGIOIT AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 107 

religious reference ? by forbidding the children to know 
through their teachers that there be a God? 

How shall our American youth be taught reverence, 
without which our future is. insecure? From history? 
The present generation has become irreverent of the past. 
We are become, in the name of science, a race of icono- 
clasts. Whatever is ''gray with time," so far from 
being "godlike " and therefore worthy of veneration, is 
subjected to the focal light of scientific methods of 
investigation. In thousands of instances the new has 
supplanted the old, simply because it deserved to, was 
incomparably better. So that in the popular mind there 
has sprung up a sort of contempt for the past. 

Shall our youth learn reverence from the study of 
Nature ? If Nature is studied not as a revelation of the 
Infinite One,— her processes his methods ; her harmonies 
his reason ; her beauties his thoughts ; her wonders his 
wisdom ; her forces his power ; her laws his will ; if 
Nature is studied not as the drapery which hides and yet 
reveals the Infinite, but simply as a magazine of supplies, 
whence we may enrich ourselves, a quarry from which 
we may hew a mighty materialistic civilization ; if her 
laws are to be obeyed only that they may be mastered ; 
if her forces are to be studied only that they may be 
conquered, — how are our youth to learn reverence from 
the study of Nature, and not rather learn proudly to 
glorify man as Nature's master ? 

In his ' ' Wilhelm Meister, " Goethe expresses the opinion 
that reverence is not innate, but must be inculcated in 
order to exist. If reverence is to be taught, who shall 
do it, if not the State ? And how can the State teach 
reverence to American children without teaching them 
of God and their accountability to him ? 

We are building a nation. We cannot build perma- 
nent institutions on mere intelligence, smartness, push, 
self-assertion. There must be a profound respect for law. 

" The keystone of the world's wide arch, 

The one sustaining and sustained by all; 

Which, if it fall, brings all in ruin down." 

Schiller. 



108 PERILS. — EELIGION AKD THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

There must be a fixed habit of obedience to rightful 
authority. Such obedience on the part of the many can 
never be secured by teaching a religionless morahty ; as 
well might we expect to run a locomotive with light or 
to propel an ocean steamer by means of her compass. 

If, then, the State, which has the right to exist, has the 
right to perpetuate its existence, and if popular morality 
is essential to the perpetuity of free institutions, and if 
a knowledge of the fundamental truths of religion is 
essential to popular morality, then has the State the 
right to inculcate those truths. 

As individuals we are of course bound to respect 
religious principles, however much they may differ 
from our own, and we must be patient with religious prej- 
udices, however blind and bigoted ; but if self-preserva- 
tion be a duty as well as a right, then is it the duty of 
the State to teach these fundamental religious truths (not 
sectarian dogmas) to its children even though the 
agnostic parent objects, exactly as it is the right and 
duty of the State to take the boy from the plow, the 
mine or the mill and put him in school, if need be, 
against the protest of the parent, not for the good of the 
boy, not because the parent has no rights which we 
as individuals are bound to respect, but because the 
necessities of the State are superior to individual rights. 

Sectarian dogmas are not essential to popular morahty. 
The State, therefore, has no right to teach them, and to 
do so would be radically wrong in principle, and oppres- 
sive to many citizens. i It is objected by some that this 



1 The writer has never heard of a public school in which a Protestant 
catechism was used or any distinctively Protestant doctrine was taught. 
But Rev. Dr. C. O. Brown, of Dubuque, Iowa, states that the Roman Catholic 
catechism is taught as a regular study, in school hours, in the public schools 
at Key West, New Malory, Prairie Creek, Bernard, Wilton, Holy Cross and 
Tete de Morte, all of that state. 

"I myself," he says, "have seen it in two of these schools and heard a 
recitation at regular school hours." " At Spruce Creek, Spring Brook, 
La Motte, Otter Creek, Butler, District No. 3 and many other places in 
Jackson Co., a similar state of things exists."— 27ie Public Schools and Their 
Foes. Fifth Address. 



PEEILS. — ^RELIGION AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 109 

distinction cannot -be sustained. Archbishop Ireland, 
in his address to the National Educational Association, 
(St. Paul, July, 1890) said: "There is and there can be 
no positive religious teaching where the principle of non- 
sectarianism rules." But over against this opinion we 
will cite that of Daniel Webster, who says: "This 
objection to the multitude and difference of sects is but 
the old story, the old infidel argument. It is notorious 
that there are certain great religious truths which are 
admitted and believed by all Christians. All believe in 
the existence of a God. All believe in the immortality of 
the soul. All believe in the responsibility in another 
world for our conduct in this. . . . And cannot all 
these great truths be taught to children without their 
minds being perplexed Avith clashing doctrines and sec- 
tarian controversies? Most certainly they can." i 

Such an amount of religious instruction would not be 
deemed adequate in an ideal society. But we must deal 
with society as it actually exists, and existing society is 
not ideal. As long as men think differently and have 
different and conflicting interests, society must be a com- 
promise. 

Of course parents and the Church may give as much 
added instruction as they wish, but for the State to go 
beyond the inculcation of the fundamental truths com- 
mon to all monotheistic religions would probably lead 
to the division of the school fund, which would be a 
great calamity. On the other hand, to secularize the 
schools is to invite the corruption of popular morals and 
thus endanger the very foundations of our free institu- 
tions. Moreover, the secularists are unwittingly play- 
ing into the hands of those who desire a division of 
the school funds and the destruction of our existing school 
system. Most Protestant immigrants have been trained 
in denominational schools. The Lutherans, who number 
1,000,000, naturally incline to them; and there are many 
other Protestants so deeply impressed with the neces- 

1 Webster's Works, Vol. VI. p. 161. 



110 PERILS. — RELIGION AHD THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

sity of religious instruction in the schools that rather 
than see them secularized, they would favor denomina- 
tional schools supported by the State. 

The great danger now is that between the upper and 
nether millstones of Eomanism and Secularism, all 
religion will be ground out of our public schools. And 
this danger is greater in the West than in the East, for, 
as we have already seen, Romanism is relatively much 
stronger west of the Mississippi than east of it, and as 
we shall see later (Chap. XII.) evangelical church mem- 
bership is much weaker. 



Area of France and Great Britain Combined, 325,- 
000 Square Miles. 



Good Agricultural Land in the United States, Held 
by Mormons, 350,000 Square Miles. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PERILS. — MORMONISM. 

The people of the United States are more sensible of 
the disgrace of Mormonism than of its danger. The civ- 
ilized world wonders that such a hideous caricature of 
the Christian religion should have appeared in this most 
enlightened land ; that such an anachronism should have 
been produced by the most progressive civilization ; that 
the people who most honor womankind should be the 
ones to inflict on her this deep humiliation and outra- 
geous wrong. Polygamy, as the most striking feature of 
the Mormon monster, attracts the public eye. It is this 
which at the same time arouses interest and indignation ; 
and it is because of this that Europe points at us the fin- 
ger of shame. Polygamy has be^n the issue between 



112 PERILS. — MORMONISM. 

the Mormons and the United States government. It is 
this which has prevented the admission of Utah as a 
state. It is this against which Congress has legislated. 
And yet, polygamy is not an essential part of Mormon- 
ism; it was an after-thought; not a root, but a graft. 
There is a large and growing sect of the Mormons, i not 
located in Utah, which would excommunicate a member 
for practicing it. Nor is polygamy a very large part of 
Mormonism. Only a small minority practice it. More- 
over, it can never become general among the " saints," 
for nature has legislated on that point, and her laws ad- 
mit of no evasions. In Utah, as elsewhere, there are 
more males born than females ; and, in the membership 
of the Mormon Church there are several thousand more 
men than women. 

Polygamy might be utterly destroyed, without se- 
riously weakening Mormonism. It has served to 
strengthen the system somewhat by thoroughly entan- 
gling its victim in the Mormon net ; for a polygamist is 
not apt to apostatize. He has multiplied his " hostages 
to fortune ; " he cannot abandon helpless wives and chil- 
dren as easily as he might turn away from pernicious 
doctrines. Moreover, he has arrayed himself against 
the government with law-breakers. Franklin's saying 
to the signers of the Declaration of Independence 
is appropriately put into the mouths of this class: 
"If we don't hang together, we shall all hang sep- 
arately." Still, it may be questioned whether polygamy 
has added more of strength or weakness ; for its evil re- 
sults doubtless have often led the children of such mar- 
riages, and many others, to question the faith, and finally 
abandon it. 

What, then, is the real strength of Mormonism? It is 
ecclesiastical despotism which holds it together, unifies 
it, and makes it strong. The Mormon Church is prob- 
ably the most complete organization in the world. To 

* The Josephites, scattered through the United States, are law-abiding cit- 
izens, deluded, but inoffensive. They are now said to number 25,000. 



PERILS. — MORMOKISM. 113 

look after a Mormon population of 165,218 there are 31,- 
577 officials, or one to every five persons.^ And, so 
highly centralized is the power, that all of these threads 
of authority are gathered into one hand, that of the pres- 
ident. The priesthood, of which he is the head, claim the 
right to control in all things religious, §ocial, industrial, 
and political. Brigham Young asserted his right to 
manage in every particular, ' ' from the setting up of a 
stocking to the ribbons on a woman's bonnet." Here is 
a claim to absolute and universal rule, which is cheer- 
fully conceded by every orthodox "saint." Mormonism 
therefore, is not simply a church, but a state ; an " im- 
perium in imperio " ruled by a man who is prophet, 
priest, king and pope, all in one — a pope, too, who is not 
one whit less infallible than he who wears the tiara. 
And, 'as one would naturally expect of an American 
pope, and especially of an enterprising Western pope, he 
out-popes the Roman by holding familiar conversations 
with the Almighty, and getting, to order, new revelations 
direct from heaven ; and, another advantage which is 
more material, he keeps a firm hold of his temporal 
power. Indeed, it looks as if the spiritual were being 
subordinated to the temporal. Rev. W. M. Barrows, 
D. D., after a residence at the Mormon capital of nearly 
eight years, said : ^ " There is no doubt that it is becom- 
ing less and less a religious power, and more and more a 
political power. The first Mormon preachers were ig- 
norant fanatics, but most of them were honest, and their 
words carried a weight that sincerity always carries, 
even in a bad cause. The preachers now have the rav- 
ings of the Sibyl, but lack the inspiration. Their talk 
sounds hollow; the ring of sincerity is gone. But their 
eyes are dazzled now with the vision of an earthly em- 



1 In 1889 the Mormon Church officially reported its officers and member- 
ship in all the world as follows: Apostles, 12; patriarchs, 70; high priests, 
3,919; elders, 11,805; priests, 2,069; teachers, 2,292; deacons, 11,610; famihes, 
81,899; children under eight years of age, 49,303; total Mormon population 
(which does not include the " Josephites "), 165,218. 

' Address at the Home Missionary Anniversary, in Chicago, June 8, 1881. 



114 PERILS. — MORMON'ISM. 

pire. They have gone back to the old Jewish idea of a 
temporal kingdom, and they are endeavoring to set up 
such a kingdom in the valleys of Utah, and Idaho and 
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, Arizona 
and Nevada." 

If there be any, doubt as to the designs of the Mor- 
mons, let the testimony of Bishop Lunt be conclusive on 
that point. He said in 1880 : ' ' Like a grain of mustard- 
seed was the truth planted in Zion ; and it is destined to 
spread through all the world. Our Church has been or- 
ganized only fifty years, and yet behold its wealth and 
power. This is our year of jubilee. We look forward 
with perfect confidence to the day when we will hold 
the reins of the United States government. That is our 
present temporal aim ; after that, we expect to control 
the continent." When told that such a scheme seemed 
rather visionary, in view of the fact that Utah cannot 
gain recognition as a state, the Bishop replied : "Do not 
be deceived ; we are looking after that. We do not care 
for these territorial officials sent out to govern us. They 
are nobodies here. We do not recognize them, neither 
do we fear any practical interference by Congress. We 
intend to have Utah recognized as a state. To-day we 
hold the balance of political power in Idaho, we rule 
Utah absolutely, and in a very short time we will hold 
the balance of power in Arizona and Wyoming. A few 
months ago, President Snow of St. George, set out with 
a band of priests, for an extensive tour through Colorado 
New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Arizona to 
proselyte. We also expect to send missionaries to some 
parts of Nevada, and we design to plant colonies in 
Washington Territory. 

" In the past six months we have sent more than 3,000 
of our people down through the Sevier Valley to settle in 
Arizona, and the movement still progresses. All this 
will build up for us a political power, which will, in 
time, compel the homage of the demagogues of the 
country. Our vote is solid, and will remain so. It will 
be thrown where the most good will be accomplished 



PERILS. — MORMOKISM. 115 

for the church. Then, in some great pohtical crisis, the 
two present pohtical parties will bid for our support. 
Utah will then be admitted as a polygamous state, and 
the other territories we have peacefully subjugated will 
be admitted also. We will then hold the balance of 
power, and will dictate to the country. In time, our 
principles, which are of sacred origin, will spread 
throughout the United States. We possess the ability 
to turn the political scale in any particular community 
we desire. Our people are obedient. When they are 
called by the Church, they promptly obey. They sell 
their houses, lands and stock, and remove to any part of 
the country the Church may direct them to. You can 
imagine the results which wisdom may bring about, 
with the assistance of a church organization like ours." 

Since these words were uttered the United States gov- 
ernment has made itself felt in "Zion," and its oflficers 
are no longer "nobodies" in Utah; but the astute 
bishop does not over-estimate the effectiveness of the 
Mormon Church as a colonizer. An order is issued by 
the authorities that a certain district shall furnish so 
many hundred emigrants for Arizona or Idaho. The 
families ,are drafted, so many from a ward ; and each 
ward or district equips its own quota with wagons, 
animals, provisions, implements, seed and the like. 
Thus the Mormon president can mass voters here or 
there about as easily as a general can move his troops. 

By means of this systematic colonization the Mor- 
mons have gained possession of vast tracts of land, and 
now "hold almost all the soil fit for agriculture from 
the Eocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada, or an area 
not less than 500 miles by 700, making 350,000 square 
miles " ^ ; that is one-sixth of the entire acreage between 
the Mississippi and Alaska. In this extended region it 
is designed to plant a Mormon population suflQciently 
numerous to control it. With this in view, the Church 



1 Rev. D. L. Leonard, late Home Missionary Superintendent for Utah, 
Idaho, Montana and West Wyoming. 



116 PEEILS. — MOkMUNISM. 

sends out from 200 to 400 missionaries a year, most of 
whom labor in Europe. They generally return after 
two years of service at their own charges. In 1849 the 
"Perpetual Emigration Fund" was founded for the pur- 
pose of assisting converts Avho were too poor to reach 
" Zion " unaided. During the first ten years after the 
founding of this fund the annual average was 750; for 
the next decade it was 2,000; from 1880 to 1885 the 
number ranged from 2,500 to 3,000; since 1885 it has 
gradually decreased. The losses by apostasy i are many, 
but are more than covered by the number of converts, 
while the natural increase of the Church by the growth 
of the family is exceedingly large. Furthermore, to the 
growing power of multiplying numbers is added that of 
rapidly increasing wealth. The Mormons are industri- 
ous — a lazy man cannot enter their heaven — and the 
tithing of the increase adds constantly to the vast sums 
already gathered in the grasping hands of the hierarchy. 
The Mormon delegate to Congress, who carries a hun- 
dred thousand votes in one hand, and millions of cor- 
ruption money in the other, will prove a dangerous man 
in Washington, unless politicians grow strangely virtu- 
ous, and there are fewer itching palms twenty years 
hence. 

Those best acquainted with Mormonism seem most 
sensible of the danger which it threatens. The pastors 
of churches and principals of schools in Salt Lake City, 



* We may learn ere long that there is as little occasion for congratulation 
over Mormon apostasy as over Roman Catholic. The Mormon, in his men- 
tal make-up, is a distinct type. There are men in every community who 
were born for the Mormon Church. Let one of the missionaries of the 
" Saints " appear, and he attracts this class as naturally as a magnet 
attracts iron filings in a handful of sand. They are waiting to hear and 
believe some new thing; they are driven about by every wind of doctrine; 
they have probably been members of several different religious denomi- 
nations ; they are credulous and superstitious, and are easily led in the 
direction of their inclinations; they love reasoning, but hate reason; they 
are capable of a blind devotion, and strongly incline to fanaticism, in a 
word, they are cranky. A church largely made up of such material will, of 
course, multiply apostates. The Mormon Chui'ch is a machine which manu- 
factures tinder for anarchistic fire. 



PERILS. — MORMONISM. 117 

in an address to American citizens, say:^ "We recog- 
nize the fact that the so-called Mormon Church, in its 
exercise of political power, is antagonistical to American 
institutions, and that there is an irrepressible conflict 
between Utah Mormonism and American republicanism ; 
so much so that they can never abide together in har- 
mony. We also believe that the growth of this anti- 
republican power is .such that, if not checked speedily, it 
will cause serious trquble in the near future. We fear 
that the nature and extent of this danger are not fully 
comprehended by the nation at large. " 

If the Mormon power had its seat in an established 
commonwealth like Ohio, such an ignorant and fanat- 
ical population, rapidly increasing, and under the abso- 
lute control of unscrupulous leaders, who openly avowed 
their hostility to the State, and lived in contemptuous 
violation of its laws, would be a disturbing element 
which would certainly endanger the peace of society. 
Indeed, the Mormons, when much less powerful than 
they are to-day, could not be tolerated in Missouri or 
Illinois. And Mormonism is tenfold more dangerous in 
the new West, where its power is greater, because the 
"Gentile" population is less; where it has abundant 
room to expand; where, in a new and unorganized 
society, its complete organization is the more easily 
master of the situation; and where state constitutions 
and laws, yet unformed, and the institutions of society, 
yet plastic, are subject to its molding influence. 

And what are we going to do about it? Something can 
be done by legislation, though it has proved less effective 
than was expected. From the first enactment of anti- 
polygamy laws by Congress in 1862 down to September 
1, 1889, only twenty-four convictions had been secured ^ 
while sixty-seven men are known to have entered into 
polygamy during the single year ending June, 1887. 
There were, however, 909 convictions for unlawful 



^ Hand-book of Mormonism, p. 94. 

' Montgomery's Mormon Delusion, p. 292. 



118 PERILS. — MORMOI^ISM. 

cohabitation, under the Edmunds Law, from 1882 to 
1889. But this number is only five per cent of those 
known to be guilty. ^ The governor of the territory, 
Hon. A. L. Thomas, who is thoroughly acquainted with 
the situation, says, ^ ' ' The government has been for 
years well represented by able and efficient ofiicers, 
and the result has been important, but not decisive. 
This course (vigorous prosecution) has not changed opin- 
ion, but has caused greater care in, concealing offenses. " 

Wilford Woodruff, the President of the Mormon 
Church has recently issued a proclamation in which he 
says : ' ' Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress 
forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pro- 
nounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I do 
hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws and 
to use all my influence with the members of the church 
over which I preside to have them do likewise." 

If this declaration was made in good faith, it would 
probably mean that polygamy is to be abandoned, at 
least for a time. It is, however, the well-nigh universal 
opinion of Gentiles in Salt Lake City that this manifesto 
was a mere trick intended for obvious reasons to hood- 
wink the public. We have seen that polygamy might 
be destroyed without seriously weakening Mormonism ; 
indeed, its destruction, by allaying suspicion, by creat- 
ing the impression that the Mormon problem is solved, 
and by removing the obstacle to Utah's admission as a 
state, might materially strengthen Mormonism. Any 
blow to be really effective must be aimed at the priestly 
despotism. 

The political power of the hierarchy has been in some 
measure curtailed by two decisions of the Supreme Court 
rendered February 3, 1890. One decision sustains the con- 
stitutionality of the law of Idaho which disfranchises all 
who are "members of any order, organization, or asso- 
ciation which teaches, advises, counsels, or encourages 



1 Montgomery's Mormon Delusion, p. 293. 
' Report of the Governor of Utah, 1889. 



PERILS. — MORMONISM. 119 

its members or devotees or any other persons to commit 
the crime of bigamy or polygamy." A similar law in 
Utah would undoubtedly be sustained by the Supreme 
Court, but of course such a law can never be enacted 
so long as the Mormons control the territorial legis- 
lature. 

The other decision of the Court sustained the consti- 
tutionality of an act of Congress, passed in 1887, by 
which the territorial charter of the Mormon Church was 
repealed, the corporation dissolved and its property, in 
excess of $50,000, escheated to the United States, to be 
used for the support of public schools in Utah. Under 
this law a receiver took possession of nearly $1,000,000 
worth of property. The power of the hierarchy has been 
enhanced by the great wealth of the church. The 
sequestration of that wealth, therefore, must in some 
measure disable the hierarchy. But the power of the 
priesthood existed before that wealth was accumulated. 
It was their power which made such accumulation pos- 
sible. This blow, therefore, does not go to the root of 
the matter. Indeed, it is liable to strengthen Mormon- 
ism as much on one side as it weakens it on another, 
for the public schools are taught almost wholly by Mor- 
mons, and this great sum of money will, therefore, be 
applied to teach Mormon doctrines unless Congress 
places the public schools of the territory under the con- 
trol of the United States. If this were done and all 
Mormons were disfranchised as they should be ( except- 
ing of course the Josephites, who are loyal), much time 
and labor would yet be required to complete the work. 
' ' Let him who thinks that the Mormon problem is 
almost solved be undeceived. Even when Congress and 
the courts shall have done their utmost, it will take half 
a century yet of the gospel in the hands of missionaries 
and teachers to dig up the roots of this evil. The public 
has not yet grasped the proportions of this problem. 
The present laws and Christian forces at work in Utah 
still have a problem before them much like that which a 
single company of sappers and miners would have who 



120 PEEILS. — MORMOKISM. 

should undertake to dig down the Wahsatch Mountain 
range with pick and spade. "^ 

The secret power of the system is the people's belief in 
the divine inspiration, and hence infallibility of the 
priesthood. This is a veritable Pandora's box out of 
which may spring any possible delusion or excess. Said 
Heber C. Kimball, formerly one of the Apostles : 

' ' The word of our Leader and Prophet is the word of 
God to this people. We can not see God. We can not 
hold converse with him. But he has given us a man 
that we can talk to and thereby know his will, just as 
well as if God himself were present with us." Special 
"revelations " to the head of the church, even if directly 
contrary to the Scriptures, or the Book of Mormon, are 
absolutely binding. The latter says: ^ " Wherefore I, the 
Lord God, will not suffer that this people do like unto 
them of old; wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and 
hearken to the word of the Lord. For there shall not 
any man among you have save it be one wife ; and con- 
cubines he shall have none." Yet a special "revelation " 
sufficed to establish polygamy. Mormon despotism, 
then, has its roots in the superstition of the people ; and 
this Congress cannot legislate away. The people must 
be elevated and enlightened through the instrumentality 
of Christian education and the preaching of the gospel. 
This work is being effectively done by the various Chris- 
tian denominations. It is chiefly to such agencies that 
we must look to break the Mormon power. 

1 Montgomery's Mormon Delusion, p. 349. 
"* Book of Jacob, Chap. II, verse 6. 



Liquor Bill of the United States in 1889, 
$1,000,000,000. 



The Small Square in the Corner Represents 
the Amount Contributed in 1890 by Evan- 
gelical Churches to Home and Foreign Mis- 
sions, $10,695,259. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 

To touch SO vast a subject, and only touch it, is diffi- 
cult. Let us consider briefly but two points — the dan- 
ger of intemperance as enhanced by the progress of 
civilization, and the Liquor Power. I. The progress 
of civilization brings men into closer contact. The 
three great civilizing instrumentalities of the age, moral, 
mental and material, are Christianity, the press and 
steam, which respectively bring together men's hearts, 
minds and bodies into more intimate and multiplied 
relations. Christianity is slowly binding the race into 
a brotherhood. The press transforms the earth into an 
audience room ; while the steam engine, so far as com- 
merce is concerned, has annihilated, say, nine-tenths of 
space. 

Observe how this bringing of men into closer and 
multiplied relations has served to increase the excite- 



122 PEEILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 

ments of life, to quicken our rate of living. The Chris- 
tian religion is an excitant. In proportion as it leads 
men to recognize and accept their responsibility for 
others, it arouses them, to action in their behalf, under 
the stress of the most urgent motives. The press and 
telegraph, by bringing many minds into contact, have 
ministered marvelously to the activity of the popular 
intellect. Isolation tends to stagnation. Intercourse 
quickens thought, feeling, action. Steam has stimulated 
human activity almost to fury. By prodigiously 
lengthening the lever of human power, by bringing the 
country to the city, the inland cities to the sea-board, the 
seaports to each other, it has multiplied many -fold every 
form of intercourse. By establishing industries on an 
immense scale it has greatly complicated business ; 
while severe and increasing competition demands closer 
study, a greater application of energy, a larger expend- 
iture of mental power. 

Thus it would seem that these three great forces of 
civilization move along parallel lines, and co-operate in 
stimulating the nations to an activity ever more intense 
and exciting ; so that the progress of civilization seems 
to involve an increasing strain on the nervous system. 
These influences will be better appreciated if we com- 
pare, for a moment, ancient and modern civilization. 
Look at life in Athens, Jerusalem or Babylon, when they 
were centers of civilization, as compared with Paris, 
London, or New York. The chief men of an Oriental 
city might be found sitting in the gate gossiping, or 
possibly philosophizing. Those of an Occidental metrop- 
olis are deep in schemes of commerce, manufacture, 
politics or philanthropy, v/eaving plans whose threads 
reach out through all the land, and even to the ends of 
the earth. The Eastern merchant sits in his bazaar, as 
did his ancestor two or three thousand years ago, and 
chaffers with his customers by the hour over a trifle. 
The Western and modern business man is on his feet. 
The two attitudes are representative. Ancient civiliza- 
tion was sedentary and contemplative ; ours is active 



PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 123 

and practical. '' Multum in parvo '' is its maxim. 
Immense results brought about in a few days, or even 
minutes, hurry the mind through a wide range of experi- 
ence, and compress, it may be, years into hours. I am 
not at all sure that Abraham Lincoln did not live longer 
than Methuselah. In point of experience, results, acquisi- 
tions, enjoyment and sorrow— in all that makes up life, 
save the mere factor of time— I am not at all sure that the 
antediluvians were not the children, and the men of this 
generation the aged patriarchs. And life is fuller and 
more intense, activity is more eager and restless here in 
the United States than anywhere else in the world. We 
work more days in a year, more hours in a day, and do 
more work in an hour than the most active people of 
Europe.^ 

If we were quite unacquainted with the results of this 
feverish activity of modern civilization, and especially of 
American civilization, reason would enable us to antici- 
pate those results. Such excitements, such restless 
energy, such continued stress of the nerves, must, in 
course of a few generations, decidedly change the ner- 
vous organization of men, We know that the progress of 
civilization has refined temperaments, has rendered 
men more susceptible and sensitive, A tragedy that is a 
nine days' horror with us would hardly have attracted 
more than a passing glance in od Rome, whose gentle 
matrons made a holiday by attending gladiatorial shows, 
and seeing men kill each other for Roman sport at the 
rate of 10,000 in a single reign. And when brothers met 
in the arena, and lacked the nerve to strike each other 
down, red-hot irons were pressed against their naked, 
quivering flesh to goad them on, while these same 
mothers shouted, "Kill!" We complain sometimes 
that modern life has become too largely one of feeling. 
It is true the many live lives of impulse, rather than of 



^ These statements could be abundantly confirmed, but it is presumed 
they will not be doubted. The point will be further developed in a later 
chapter. 



124 PEEILS. — Il^TEMPERAKCE. 

principle ; but it is also true that the springs of human 
sympathy were never so easily touched as now. Such 
wide differences in men's sensibilities argue not only a 
difference of education, but a change in the world's 
nerves.^ 

Physicians tell us that going from the equator north, 
and from the arctic regions south, nervous disorders in- 
crease until a climax is reached in the temperate zone. 
An eminent physician of New York, the late Dr. George 
M. Beard, who has made nervous diseases a speciality, 
says that they are comparatively rare in Spain, Italy and 
the northern portions of Europe, also in Canada and the 
Gulf States, but very common in our Northern States 
and in Central Europe. And this belt, it will be ob- 
served, coincides exactly with the zone of the world's 
greatest activity; and further, where this activity is 
greatest; viz., in the United States, these nervous disor- 
ders are the most frequent. Dr. Beard begins an exceed- 
ingly interesting work 2 on nervous exhaustion with 
these sentences : ' ' There is a large family of functional 
nervous disorders that are increasingly frequent among 
the indoor classes of civilized countries, and that are 
especially frequent in the northern and eastern parts of 
the United States. The sufferers from these maladies 
are counted in this country by thousands and hundreds 
of thousands ; in all the Northern and Eastern States 
they are found in nearly every brain-working house- 
hold. " After speaking of certain numerous and wide- 
spread nervous diseases among us, he adds : "In Europe 
these affections are but little known." They are all 
diseases of civilization, and of modern civilization, and 
mainly of the nineteenth century, and of the United 
States. " Neurasthenia," which is the name he gives to 
nervous exhaustion, "is," ho says, "comparatively a 

* Since writing the above, I find the following sentence in Dr. Geo. M. 
Beard's American Nervousness, p. 118: " Fineness of organization, which 
is essential to the development of the civilization of modern times, is accom- 
panied by intensified mental susceptibility." 

3 Entitled Neurasthenia. 



PERILS. — IKTEMPERANCE. 125 

modern disease, its symptoms surprisingly more fre- 
quent now than in the last century, and is an Ameri- 
can disease, in this, that it is very much more common 
here than in any other part of the civilized world." 

When we consider that the increased activity of mod- 
ern civilization is attended by new and increasing ner- 
vous disorders, that the belt of prevalent nervous diseases 
coincides exactly with that of the world's greatest activ- 
ity, and further, that in this belt, where the activity is 
by far the most intense, nervous affections are by far 
the most common, it is evident that the intensity of mod- 
ern life has already worked, and continues to work, im- 
portant changes in men's nervous organization. The 
American people are rapidly becoming the most nervous, 
the most highly organized, in the world, if, indeed, they 
are not already such. And the causes, climatic and other, 
which have produced this result, continue operative. 

Be it observed now that nervous people are exposed to 
a double danger from intoxicating liquors. In the first 
place, they are more likely than others to desire stimu- 
lants. Says Dr. Beard : ' ' When the nervous system 
loses, through any cause, much of its nervous force, so 
that it cannot stand upright with ease and comfort, it 
leans on the nearest and most convenient artificial sup- 
port that is capable of temporarily propping up the en- 
feebled frame. Anything that gives ease, sedation, 
oblivion, such as chloral, chloroform, opium or alcohol, 
may be resorted to at first as an incident, and finally as 
a habit. Such is the philosophy of opium and alcohol 
inebriety. Not only for the relief of pain, but for the 
relief of exhaustion, deeper and more distressing than 
pain, do both men and women resort to the drug shop. 
I count this one of the great causes of the recent increase 
of opium^ and alcohol inebriety among women." 

As a nation grows more nervous, its use of intoxicating 

1 There were imported into the United States in 1869, 90,997 pounds of 
opium; in 1874, 170,706 pounds; in 1877, 230,102 pounds; during the fiscal 
year ending in 1880, 553,451 pounds; an increase of more than six-fold In 
eleven years. 



126 PERILS. — IHTEMPERAi^'CE. 

liquors increases. In Great Britain, Belgium, Holland 
and Germany, which are the European countries lying 
in the nervous belt, there has been a marked increase in 
the use of alcohol during the last half century. Since 
1840, its consumption in Belgium has increased 238 per 
cent. In 1869 there were 120,000 saloons in Prussia; in 
1880 there were 165, 000. From 1831 to 1872, while the pop- 
ulation (not including recent annexations) increased 53 
per cent., whiskey saloons increased 91 per cent. For 
all Germany, the increase in consumption of spirituous 
liquors, per caput, from 1872 to 1875, was 23.5 per cent. 
It appears, however, that there was a decrease in the 
amount used per caput from 1.27 gallons in 1872 to 1.09 
gallons in 1887. But during the same period the amount 
of beer consumed increased from 21.50 gallons per caput 
to 24.99 gallons. 1 In Great Britain, during the year 1800, 
a population of 15,000,000 consumed a little less than 12- 
000,000 gallons of spirits. Fifty years later, a population 
of 27,000,000 consumed 28,000,000 gallons. In 1874, a 
population of 32,000,000 consumed 41,000,000 gallons. 
That is, while the population increased 113 per cent. , the 
consumption of spirituous liquors increased 241 per cent. 
From 1868 to 1877, while the population increased less 
than ten per cent. , the amount of spirituous liquors con- 
sumed increased thirty-seven per cent. During the 
next ten years the amount of spirits used per caput 
somewhat decreased ; but the Chancellor of the Excheq- 
uer in his statement of English finances in April, 1890, 
said that the revenue from alcoholic beverages showed a 
universal rush to the beer barrel, the spirit bottle and 
the wine decanter. " In 1888 the number of drams taken 
reached 245,000,000; in 1889, 275,000,000,"— an increase of 
twelve per cent. 
The following table ^ shows the number of gallons of 



1 Statistisches Jahrbuch fiii* das Deutsche Reich. See The Cyclopsedia 
of Temperance and Prohibition. Funk and Wagnalls. 

' From the Quarterly Report of the Chief of the U. S. Bureau of Statistics, 
for the three months ending March 31, 1889, and from Spofiford's American 
Almanac, 1889. 



IWO. 


2.52 


1860. 


2.86 


1888. 


1.25 



PEEILS. — IKTEMPERANCE. 127 

liquor consumed for all purposes in the United States in 
1840, 1860 and in 1888 : 

Distilled Spirits. Wine. Malt Liquors. 

1840. 43,060,884 4,873,096 23,310,843. 

1860. 89,968,651 11,059,141 101,346,669. 

1888. 75,845,352 36,335,068 767,587,056. 

Gallons consumed for all purposes, per caput: 

Spirits. Wines. Malt Liquors. All. 

.29 1.36 4.17. 

.35 3.22 6.40. 

.60 12.68 14.53. 

The steady increase in the use of wine and beer per 
caput, since 1840 is very marked, and the decrease in the 
use of whiskey since 1860 is equally so. It has been ar- 
gued by the brewers and others that beer and wine have 
proved a blessing by driving out to a great extent the 
use of spirituous liquors, and that there is now less alco- 
hol used as a beverage per caput than there was half a 
century ago. Let us see if this position will bear exam- 
ination. 

Eeducing these several liquors to alcohol, we find that 
the people of the United States consumed for all pur- 
poses, 1.51 gallons of alcohol per caput in 1840, 1.79 
gallons in 1860, and 1.27 gallons in 1888. In order to a cor- 
rect interpretation of these figures it must be remem- 
bered that formerly a large proportion of the whiskey 
consumed was used in manufactures. But after the 
heavy Internal Eevenue tax was imposed, the price of 
whiskey per gallon rose seventeen-fold in three years, 
which drove it out of manufactures, for the most part. 
David A. Wells, as chairman of a commission to revise 
the whole Internal Revenue system, reported in 1866 ; 
" In some instances entire branches of business have been 
destroyed in consequence of the great advance in the 
price of alcohol." In other instances substitutes for al- 
cohol were found. Mr. Wells estimates that in 1860, 25,- 
000,000 gallons of proof spirits were consumed in the 



128 PERILS. — Iiq^TEMPERANCE. 

preparation of burning fluid. " Since 1862," he adds 
' ' the production and consumption of burning fluid have 
almost entirely ceased." The commission said: "We 
are inclined to consider the estimate of a gallon and a 
half per head for the consumption of the United States 
(of spirits as a beverage) as somewhat exaggerated." 
But taking this " exaggerated estimate," we find that in 
1840 there were .93 of a gallon of alcohol used per caput 
as a beverage and in 1860, 1.01 gallons. Most of the 
spirits now consumed in the United States are used as a 
beverage, but allowing ten per cent, for use in the arts 
we, in 1888, consumed in our beverages 1.2 gallons of al- 
cohol per caput. That is, the increased consumption of 
beer and wine has been accompanied by an increased use 
of alcohol. 

Thus it appears that during the last half century or 
longer, in those countries lying in the nervous belt, the 
use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage has increased 
per caput. The full significance of this fact appears only 
when we remember that early in this century liquors 
were on every side-board, and conscientious scruples 
against their moderate use were almost unheard of, while 
to-day there are many millions of teetotalers both in this 
country and in Great Britain. Especially during the 
past twenty-five years, the temperance reform has made 
wonderful progress, and the proportion of teetotalers is 
much greater to-day than ever before. And yet there is 
more liquor used per caput now than formerly ; show- 
ing, conclusively, that there is much more of excess now 
than then; declaring that, as a nation grows nervous, 
those who drink at all are more apt to drink immoderately. 

Again, in the second place, men of nervous organiza- 
tion are not only more likely than others to use alcohol, 
and to use it to excess, but its effects in their case are 
worse and more rapid. The wide difference between a 
nervous and a phlegmatic temperament accounts for the 
fact that one man will kill himself with drink in four or 
five years, and another in forty or fifty. The phleg- 
matic man is but little sensitive to stimulus ; hence, when 



PERILS. — INTEMPEEANCE. 129 

its influence wears off, there is little reaction. He, 
accordingly, forms the appetite slowly, and the process 
of destruction is slow. Another man, of fine nervous 
organization, takes a glass of spirits, and every nerve in 
his body tingles and leaps. The reaction is severe, 
and the nerves cry out for more. The appetite, rapidly 
formed, soon becomes uncontrollable, and the miserable 
end is not long delayed. The higher development of the 
nervous system, which comes with the progress of civil- 
ization, renders men more sensitive to pain, more sus- 
ceptible to the evil results which attend excess of any 
kind. Savages may, almost with impunity, transgress 
laws of health which would inflict on civilized men, for 
like transgression, penalties well-nigh or quite fatal. It 
would seem as if God intended that, as men sin against 
the greater light which comes with increasing civiliza- 
tion, they should suffer severer punishment. 

It has been shown that the use of intoxicants is more 
dangerous for this generation than it has been for any 
preceding generation ; that it is more dangerous for in- 
habitants of the nervous belt than for the remainder of 
mankind ; that it is more dangerous for the people of the 
United States than for other inhabitants of this belt. It 
remains to be shown that it is more dangerous for the 
people of the West than for those of the East. 

Among the principal causes which are operative to 
render the typical American temperament more nervous 
than the European is the greater dryness of our cli- 
mate. ' ' Dr. Max von Pettenkof er has concluded, from 
the investigations he has made into the comparative loss 
of heat experienced by a person breathing dry air and 
one breathing damp air, that with the dry air more heat 
is lost and more created, and, in consequence, the circu- 
lation is quicker and more intense, life is more energetic, 
and there is no opportunity for the excessive accumula- 
tion of fat or flesh, or for the development of a phleg- 
matically nervous temperament." ^ The mountain 

1 C. E. Young, in Popular Science Monthly, September, 1880. 



130 PERILS. — li^TEMPERANCE. 

region of the West has by far the driest atmosphere of 
any portion of the country. The writer has often seen 
Long's Peak by moonhght at a distance of eighty miles. 
The wonderful transparency of that mountain air i-s due 
to the absence of moisture. Such a climate is itself a 
wine, and life in it is greatly intensified, with corre- 
sponding results in the nervous system. We should, 
accordingly, expect to find a marked increase of intem- 
perance. And such is the case. In the Mississippi Valley, 
where the altitude is low, and the atmosphere moist 
there is much less intemperance than in the mountains, 
as appears from the ratio of voters to saloons. Take the 
tier of states and territories next east of the Rocky 
Mountain range. In 1880, Dakota had 95 voters to every 
saloon ; ^ Nebraska, 133 ; Kansas, 224 ; and Texas, 136. 
But notice the change as soon as we reach the high alti- 
tudes. Montana had only 28 voters to each saloon ; Wy- 
oming, 43; Colorado, 37; New Mexico, 26; Arizona, 25; 
Utah, 84; Idaho, 35; Washington, 68; Oregon, 58; Cali- 
fornia, 37; and Nevada, 32. The average for the states 
between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains was 
one Saloon to every 112.5 voters. In the eleven moun- 
tain states and territories, the average was one saloon to 
every 43 voters. East of the Mississippi, the average 
was one saloon to every 107.7 voters. If our assumption 
that the ratio of saloons to voters correctly measures in- 
temperance, is just, the people in the western third of 
the United States are two and one-half times as intem- 
perate as those in the eastern two -thirds. There are 
several causes for this, some of which are more or less 
temporary; but one of the chief influences is climatic, 
which will continue operative. 
We have seen that the progress of civilization brings 

1 statistics compiled from Census of 1880, and Internal Revenue of same 
year. For this comparison the statistics of 1880 are preferable to those of 
1890, because during this interval prohibitory law^s have been adopted in 
several of these states. The number of saloons was doubtless much larger 
than was reported by the Census ; but for comparison between the East and 
West, or the city and country, the Census statistics answer every purpose. 



PEKILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 131 

men into more intimate relations, that closer contact 
quickens activity, that increased activity refines the 
nervous system, and that a highly nervous organization 
invites intemperance, and at the same time renders its 
destructive results swifter and more fatal. Thus the 
very progress of civilization renders men the easier vic- 
tims of intemperance. We have also seen that under 
regulation the liquor traffic increases more rapidly than 
the population. The alternative, then, seems simple, 
clear, certain, that civilization must destroy the liquor 
traffic or be destroyed by it. Even here in the East, 
this death struggle is desperate, and no man looks for an 
easy victory over the dragon. What, then, of the far 
West, where the relative power of the saloon is two and a 
half times greater? 

II. — The Liquor Power. 

The liquor traffic, of course, implies two parties, the 
buyer and the seller. The preceding discussion relates 
to the former, only a few words touching the latter. 
According to the Report of the Commissioner of Internal 
Revenue there were 184,889 liquor dealers and manufac- 
turers in the United States in 1889. Their saloons, allow- 
ing twenty-two feet front to each, would reach in an 
unbroken line from Chicago to New York. There is 
invested in this business an immense capital. It is im- 
possible to determine how much, but it certainly amounts 
to hundreds of millions of dollars. In an address in the 
House of Representatives, in favor of the Bonded 
Whiskey Bill, Hon. P. V. Deuster, of Wisconsin, member 
of Congress, and special champion of the liquor dealers, 
said that the total market value of the spirituous, malt, 
and vinous liquors produced in 1883 was $490,961,588. It 
is now estimated that the annual liquor bill of the nation 
is $1,000,000,000. So great wealth in the hands of one 
class, having common interests and a common purpose, 
is a mighty power. 

And this power does not lack organization. Its sue- 



132 PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 

cess at Washington a few years since in securing legisla- 
tion which granted to whiskey makers pecuhar 
privileges, accorded to no other tax payers, is suflB.cient 
evidence of their influence. The United States Brewers' 
Association was organized in 1862. The object of the 
organization may be inferred from the introduction to 
their constitution, where we read: " That the owners of 
breweries, separately, are unable to exercise a proper 
influence in the interest of the craft in the legislature and 
public administration." How this "proper influence " is 
brought to bear upon legislatures will appear later. That 
it is potent there can be no doubt. At the Brewers' Con- 
gress, held in Buffalo, July 8, 1868, President Clausen, 
speaking of the action of the New York branch of the 
association, relative to the excise law of the state, said : 
' ' Neither means nor money were spared during the past 
twelve months to accomplish the repeal of this detested 
law. The entire German population were enlisted." 
"Editorials favorable to the repeal were published in 
sixty different English and German newspapers. Just 
before the election, 30,000 campaign circulars were dis- 
tributed among the Germans of the different counties. 
A state convention of brewers, hop and malt dealers, hop 
growers, etc. , was largely attended, and resolutions were 
adopted in which we pledged ourselves to support only 
such candidates who bound themselves to work for the 
repeal of the excise law, and thereby check the exer- 
tions of the temperance party. These resolutions were 
published, principally through the English press, in all 
the counties of the state. By these efforts the former 
minority in the Assembly was changed to a majority 
of twenty votes in our favor. " The object of this associ- 
ation is not industrial, but avowedly political. The pres- 
ident said, at the Chicago Congress, in 1867: "Only by 
union in brotherly love it will be possible to attain such 
results, guard against oppressive laws, raise ourselves to 
be a large and wide-spread political power and with con- 
fidence anticipate complete success in all our undertak- 
ings." Again at Davenport, in 1870, President Clausen 



PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 133 

said : ' ' Unity is necessary, and we must form an organi- 
zation that not only controls a capital of two hundred 
milhon dollars, but which also commands thousands of 
votes, politically, through which our legislators will dis- 
cern our power." At the Chicago Congress, the brewers 
resolved : ' ' That we consider it absolutely necessary that 
our organization should exist in every state and county." 
The following resolution was passed by the Liquor Dealers 
and Manufacturers- Association of Illinois, in 1881: ''Re- 
solved, That the maintenance and perfection of our pres- 
ent State Association is absolutely necessary for the 
proper protection of our business interests ; that the new 
Board of Trustees spare neither trouble nor expense to 
properly organize every senatorial district in the state, 
so that, by the time of the next election of members of 
the General Assembly, the business men engaged in the 
liquor trade may be thoroughly organized and disci- 
plined." The liquor trade boasts that in New York City 
alone it controls 40,000 votes. That the saloons are the 
great centers of political activity is evident from the fact 
that out of 1,002 primary and other political meetings 
held in New York during the year preceding the Novem- 
ber election of 1884, 633 were held in saloons and 86 were 
held next door to saloons, while only 283 were held apart 
from them.i These saloons and their keepers are con- 
trolled by a few strong men. In 1888, of the saloons in 
New York City, 4,710 were subject to chattel mortgages, 
which aggregated $4, 959, 578 in value. An overwhelming 
proportion of these mortgages were held by brewers, one 
firm holding upwards of 200, and another 600; which 
being interpreted means that two firms controlled up- 
wards of 800 centers of political influence in New York.^ 
Let us now look at some of the methods of the Liquor 
Power. The brewers favor boycotting. The following 
resolution was passed at their seventh congress: "i?e- 
solved, That we find it necessary, in a business point of 



* Robert Graham, Secretary of Church Temperance Society. 
8 Chattel Mortgages on Saloon Fixtures by Robert Graham. 



134 PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 

view, to patronize only such business men as will work 
hand in hand with us." They expend money freely to 
accomplish their purpose at the polls. ' ' By direct testi- 
mony from the liquor campaign managers it has been as- 
certained that in the Rhode Island contest of 1889, $31,000 
was paid for the single object of manipulating the news- 
papers." "It is known that in the Amendment campaign 
in Pennsylvania in 1889, $200,000 was contributed in the 
city of Philadelphia alone " by the liquor dealers, while 
the brewers of New York added $100,000 more.^ The liq- 
uor lobby at Albany, New York, at the session of 1878-9, 
admitted before a legislative committee that they had ex- 
pended about $100,000 to influence legislation. From 
the confessions of an old liquor dealer and lobbyist ^ we 
learn by what methods legislation at Albany was ' ' influ- 
enced " a quarter of a century ago. After the election 
and before the legislature convened, ' ' Our correspondents 
throughout the state gave us special and truthful descrip- 
tions of every one of the opposition members, their mode 
of life, their habits, their eccentricities and their religious 
views ; whether they were approachable ; with a thorough 
analysis of their characters in every way, so that we 
might understand our subjects in advance." If the stiff- 
necked legislator could not be induced to vote directly 
against temperance measures, or' persuaded to 
" dodge," he must be convinced that he was sick, threat- 
ened with diphtheria or something else, and unable to 
leave his room. A sworn affidavit of the doctor to this 
effect cost "anywhere from $25 to $100, according to the 
size of the lie sworn to." These cases of sickness never 
proved fatal, and recovery was always rapid. " I well 
remember a senator who was in great distress about a 
mortgage that was being foreclosed on his house, amount- 
ing to about $1,500. This man's trouble came to the 
knowledge of the lobby. Suddenly one of the lobbyists 



1 The Cyclopedia of Intemperance and Prohibition, p. 382. Funk and 
Wagnalls. 

2 C. B. Cotton, in Tlie Voice for February 5, 1885. 



PERILS. — IKTEMPERAKCE. 135 

was missing, and a few days later the senator received 
his canceled mortgage through the post. He never for- 
got the favor, nor did his vote do us any harm after- 
wards." Sometimes a member found an elegant suit of 
clothes hanging over a chair by his bedside in the morn- 
ing ; and sometimes a relative would be presented with a 
neat little house. Another popular method was for a 
member to receive a package by express from Troy, or 
some other town near by. "This package always con- 
tained a certain sum of money, and it was always so 
arranged that one of the lobby should be with the gentle- 
man when the package came to hand. No receipt was 
ever taken from the sender in his real name, but the re- 
ceiver gave the express company one in his real name. 
So we had all the evidence we needed, and the receiver 
dared not go back on the compact the transaction cov- 
ered. From that moment he was at the mercy of the 
lobby." "If our tactics failed in the legislature, and 
temperance laws were passed, we went home to defeat 
their execution. The officers designated to execute these 
laws were generally elected. If by ourselves, it was all 
right. If by our opponents, we had to buy them up, 
and but few were found who would not take a bribe. " 
" Although the liquor lobby, during the last forty years, 
has used millions of dollars in corrupt bargaining and 
bribery^ and never has made a secret of the fact, yet no 
member was ever caught in the act, and, it is fair to pre- 
sume, no one ever will be. There is no way so dark 
they cannot find their road through." Thus does the 
Liquor Power corrupt public morals and defeat the pop- 
ular will. 

And this power, which does not hesitate to buy votes 
or intimidate voters, to defy the law or bribe its officers, 
comes to its kingdom through political partisanship, 
which enables it to make one of the two great parties its 
slave, and the other its minister. Even in the cities the 
citizens who desire clean government are in the major- 
ity ; but, instead of uniting to jmake and enforce good 
laws, they permit politics to enter into the elections, 



136 PERILS. — liq^TEMPERANCE. 

thus throwing the power into the hands of the bad mi- 
nority. " There are two things," said D'Alembert, " that 
can reach the top of the pyramid— the eagle and the 
reptile." Under the rum government of our cities, the 
reptile climbs. In 1883, of the twenty-four aldermen of 
the city of New York, ten were liquor dealers and two 
others, including the President of the Board, were ex- 
rumsellers. Important offices in the city government, 
which pay a salary of $12,000 or $15,000, have within a 
few years been occupied by men who kept "bucket 
shops" and "all night" dens; some have been prize 
fighters, and others had been tried for the crime of 
murder. Is it strange if the law in the hands of such 
men is a dead letter? Says Anthony Comstock : "I have 
no doubt many of our influential city politicians are in 
receipt of a regular revenue in the way of hush money 
from gambling-saloons, brothels and groggeries, and the 
word is passed all the way down the line to let them alone." 
The late Dr. Howard Crosby said: " One of the captains 
of police is said to have made $70,000 in one year by his 
carefulness in leaving the law breakers alone. Any- 
body with half an eye can see that the exemption of the 
liquor- selling law breakers from prosecution is a system 
and not an accident." "From Police Headquarters " he 
continues ' ' goes forth the order, not written but verbal, 
that the police are not to enforce the excise law. I have 
had my man on the force, and can speak with knowl- 
edge of the facts. If a man is arrested for violating an 
excise law, the next morning the one who arrested him 
is called up, reprimanded,, and the man arrested is dis- 
charged, while the policeman is transferred to some far- 
off district, the twenty -fourth ward, for instance — that 
Botany Bay of the police force — if he is not immediately 
discharged by those four men we call Commissioners." 
Says the New York Times : ' ' The great underlying 
evil, which paralyzes every effort to get good laws, and 
to secure the enforcement of such as we have, is the 
system of local politics, which give the saloon-keepers 
more power over government than is possessed by 



PERILS. — IKTEMPERAKCE. 13? 

all the religious and educational institutions in the 
city." 

Our cities are growing much more rapidly than the 
whole population, as is the liquor power also. If this 
power continues to keep the cities under its heel, what 
of the nation, when the city dominates the country? 
Such a powerful organization, resorting to such un- 
scrupulous methods in the interest of legitimate busi- 
ness — mining, railroading — would be exceedingly dan- 
gerous in a republic ; and the whole outcome of this traffic, 
pushed by such wealth, such organized energy and such 
means, is the corrupting of the citizen and the embrut- 
ing of the man. 

And if the liquor power is a peril at the East, what 
of the Rocky Mountain region and beyond, where 
mammonism is more abject, where there is less of 
Christian principle to resist the bribe, and where the 
relative power of the liquor traffic is two and a half 
times greater than at the East? 



Average Expenses of "Working Men's Families in Mass., 
in 1883, $754.42. 



Average Earnings of Working Men, $558. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PERILS. —SOCIALISM. 

Socialism attempts to solve the problem of suffering 
without eliminating the factor of sin. It says : ' ' From 
each according to his abilities; to each according to 
his wants." But this dictum of Louis Blanc could be 
realized only in a perfect society. Forgetting, as Herbert 
Spencer remarks, that " there is no political alchemy by 
which you can get golden conduct out of leaden in- 
stincts," socialism thinks to regenerate society without 
first regenerating the individual; or, perhaps more 
accurately, it proposes to transform the individual by 
transforming society, and expects to work this regen- 
eration by reorganizing society on a co-operative, instead 
of a competitive, basis. It talks much of fraternity, but 
forgets what Maurice finely said, that ' ' there is no f ra- 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 139 

ternity without a common father.'' There is, however, 
an increasing number of men Avho beheve devoutly in 
the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man — 
Christian men, who are quite willing to let the public 
call them socialists, if the public will let them define the 
word. The amount of socialistic coloring found in cur- 
rent literature shows how large a place socialism has 
gained in the popular thought. It is quite obvious that 
the number of those who sympathize deeply with the 
struggles of the poor and who are inclined to look toward 
socialism for a remedy has largely increased during 
recent years. There are many of this class who are 
identified with no socialistic organization and who can- 
not be enumerated. 

Socialism attracts very different classes of men : some, 
Christian philanthropists, large-hearted and self-sacri- 
ficing; others, who are discontented with their lot and 
see no way of bettering it under the existing industrial 
system; others, who are discouraged or are smarting 
under grievances; and others also are envious, selfish, 
vicious and lawless. Socialists of the latter class are 
generally immigrants. 

The despotism of the few and the wretchedness of the 
many have produced European socialism. It has been 
supposed that its doctrines could never obtain in this 
land of freedom and plenty ; but there may be a despot- 
ism which is not political, and a discontent which does 
not spring from hunger. We have discovered that Ger- 
man socialism has been largely imported, has taken 
root, and is making a vigorous growth. Let us look at 
it as it appears in this country. 

The Socialistic Labor Party and the Internationalists 
differ widely and are strongly opposed to each other. 
The one is the thin, the other the thick, end of the 
socialistic wedge. Both seek to overthrow existing 
social and economic institutions ; both propose a co-oper- 
ative form of production and exchange, as" a substitute 
for the existing capitalistic and competitive system; 
both expect a great and bloody revolution; but they 



140 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

differ widely as to policy and extreme doctrines. The 
platform^ of the Socialistic Labor Party contains much 
that is reasonable, and is well calculated to disciple 
American workmen. It does not, as a party, attack the 
family or religion, and is opposed to anarchy. 

The Internationalists are divided into two parties : the 
International Working People's Association and the In- 
ternational Workmen's Association. The latter, known 
as the "Reds," are somewhat less violent than the 
former, the "Blacks." The "Black" Internationalists 
are anarchists, while many of the "Reds" are state 
socialists. "The International Workmen's Association 
is composed chiefly of English-speaking laborers, and its 
main strength is west of the Mississippi. " 2 

The ideals of the International Working People's Asso- 
ciation are ' ' common property, socialistic production 
and distribution, the grossest materialism, free love, 
in all social arrangements perfect individualism, or, 
in other words, anarchy. Negatively expressed — 
Away with private property! Away with all author- 
ity! Away with the state! Away with the family*! 
Away with religion ! " ^ In the manifesto unanimously 
adopted by the Internationals at Pittsburg, occurs the 
following: "The church finally seeks to make com- 
plete idiots of the mass, and to make them forego 
the paradise on earth by promising them a ficti- 
tious heaven." Truth, published in San Francisco, says : 
' ' When the laboring men understand that the heaven 
which they are promised hereafter is but a mirage, they 
will knock at the door of the wealthy robber, with a 
musket in hand, and demand their share of the goods of 
this life now." Freiheit, the blasphemous paper of Herr 
Most, thus concludes an article on the " Fruits of the 
Belief in God " : " Religion, authority and state, are all 

1 See the document in Joseph Cook's Socialism, pp. 20-22; also Prof. Ely's 
Labor Movement in America, pp. 366-370. 

^ The Labor Movement in America, by Prof. R. T. Ely, p. 253, to which 
also I am indebted for many quotations from the socialistic press. 

8 Ibid, p. 244. 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 141 

carved out of the same piece of wood — to the Devil with 
them all!" The same sheet "advocates a new geneal- 
ogy, traced from mothers, whose names, and not those 
of the fathers, descend to the children, since it is never 
certain who the father is." "Public and common up- 
bringing of children," says Prof. Ely, "is likewise 
favored in the Freiheit, in order that the old family may 
completely abandon the field to free love." 

Having lost all faith in the ballot, the Internationals 
propose to carry out their "reforms" by force. The 
following is from the Pittsburg manifesto: "Agitation 
for the purpose of organization ; organization for the pur- 
pose of rebellion. In these few words the ways are 
marked, which the workers must take if they want to 
be rid of their chains .... We could show, by scores 
of illustrations, that all attempts in the past to reform 
this monstrous system by peaceable means, such as the 
ballot, have been futile, and all such efforts in the future 
must necessarily be so. . . . There remains but one re- 
course — force ! " 

The Vorbote, published in Chicago, glorifies dynamite 
as ' ' the power which, in our hands, shall make an end 
of tyranny." Truth says: "War to the palace, peace 
to the cottage, death to luxurious idleness. We have no 
moment to waste. Arm! I say, to the teeth! for the 
revolution is upon you." An article in the Freiheit, en- 
titled "Revolutionary Principles," contained the follow- 
ing: "He (the revolutionist) is the irreconcilable enemy 
of this world, and, if he continues to live in it, it is only 
that he may thereby more certainly destroy it. He 
knows only one science— namely, destruction. For this 
purpose he studies day and night. For him everything 
is moral which favors the triumph of the revolution, 
everything is immoral and criminal which hinders it. 
Day and night may he cherish only one thought, only 
one purpose— namely, inexorable destruction. While 
he pursues this purpose, without rest and in cold blood, 
he must be ready to die, and equally ready to kill every 
one with his own hands who hinders him in the attain- 



142 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

ment of this purpose." There has been formed in the 
United States a society called "The Black Hand," 
which, in its proclamation, urges " the propaganda of 
deed in every form," and cries: "War to the knife!" 
The explosions in the Houses of Parliament and Tower 
of London called forth the following declarations at a 
meeting of socialists in Chicago : ' ' This explosion has 
demonstrated that socialists can safely go into large 
congregations in broad daylight and explode their 
bombs. 

"A little hog's grease and a little nitric acid make a 
terrible explosion. Ten cents' worth would blow a 
building to atoms. 

"Dynamite can be made out of the dead bodies of 
capitalists as well as out of hogs. 

" All Chicago can be set ablaze in a minute by elec- 
tricity. 

"Private property must be abolished, if we have to 
use all the dynamite there is, and blow ninety-nine hun- 
dredths of the people off the face of the earth." Such 
teachings bore their legitimate fruits in the massacre 
of the Chicago Haymarket, May 4, 1886. 

At the time of the railroad riots, in 1877, which cost 
many lives, and not less than a hundred million dollars 
of property, and to quell which ten states, reaching 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, called on the President 
of the United States for troops, there were but few 
socialists among us, and they seem to have been taken 
unawares by the outbreak ; but they will be prepared to 
make the most of the next. The following are stock 
phrases, found in all their publications : ' ' Get ready for 
another 1877 ; " " Buy a musket for a repetition of 1877 ; " 
"Buy dynamite for a second 1877;" " Organize compa- 
nies and drill to be ready for a recurrence of the riots of 
1877." 

As to the number of socialists in the United States 
we have no exact knowledge. Their press is numerous 
and is increasing. They now have nineteen journals, 
whose combined circulation is about 80,000. These 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 143 

papers are wholly devoted to the propagation of social- 
ism, and there are many others which are more or less 
socialistically inclined. Some six years ago, or more, 
President Seelye, of Amherst College, said : ' ' There are 
probably 100,000 men in the United States to-day whose 
animosity against all existing social institutions is hardly 
less than boundless." And Prof. Ely says: ^ " If I 
wished to venture a guess, — a rash thing to do, — I should 
say that there might be half a million adherents of the 
general principles of moderate and peaceful sociahsm in 
the United States." Since this opinion was expressed, 
some five years since, the class referred to has undoubt- 
edly had a rapid growth. 

There are many labor organizations, which are more 
or less socialistic in their sympathies and ideas, though 
not avowedly connected with any of the socialistic 
parties. The Vorbote, of Chicago, says: "You might as 
well suppose the military organizations of Europe were 
for play and parade, as to suppose labor organizations 
were for mere insurance and pacific helpfulness. They 
are organized to protect interests, for which, if the time 
comes, they would fight." But the present strength of 
socialistic organizations in the United States concerns 
us less than their prospective numbers. Let us look 
at the conditions favorable to the growth of social- 
ism. 

1. Most of the Internationals, the anarchic socialists, 
and a larger proportion of the Socialistic Labor Party in 
this country are Germans, whose numbers are con- 
stantly being recruited by immigration. The rapid 
increase of socialism in Germany w411, therefore, natur- 
ally influence its growth here. The following statistics 
of votes for members of the Reichstag show its increase 
in the last twenty years. 

1 The Labor Movement in America, p. 282, 



144 PEEILS. — SOCIALISM. 

In 1871 124,655 

" 1874 351,952 

'' 1877 493,288 

" 1881 311,961 

"1884 549,990 

"1887 763,128 

" 1890 1,341,587 

At the last election (1890) in Berlin the socialists cast 
126,522 votes, over 20,000 more than all the other parties. 
"Professor Fawcett, in opening his present course of 
lectures at Oxford (1880), said that, if the growth of the 
socialistic political vote progressed in Germany and the 
United States for the next fifty years as it has for the 
last fifty, capital can do nothing effectual against social- 
ism." 1 

2. There are other influences, which, though obscure, 
are no less potent than immigration in fostering the 
growth of socialism in America. Among the deep cur- 
rents of the centuries, flowing down through the last 
eighteen hundred years and rising to the surface in the 
great German Reformation of the sixteenth century, 
there has been an irresistible drift toward individualism. 
Guizot says that the ' ' prime element in modern Euro- 
pean civilization is the energy of individual life, the force 
of personal existence." The masses once existed for the 
state; the individual was nothing. When Christ said, 
" What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul? '' thus teaching the priceless 
worth of every human being, he introduced a new idea 
into the world, which is leavening society. It has manu- 
mitted slaves, it has elevated woman, it has overthrown 
despotisms and written constitutions, it has swept away 
privileges and abolished caste. It is bearing Europe 
onward to popular government. Is it strange that the 
liberated pendulum should swing beyond the position of 
stable equilibrium? Already are there signs of an 

1 Joseph Cook's Socialism, p. 17, 1880, 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 145 

excessive individualism among us; a certain self-asser- 
tion, a contempt of authority^ which forgets that duties 
are co-extensive with rights. Anarchism is only ' ' indi- 
vidualism gone mad. " This powerful movement, there- 
fore, toward individualism, and especially its perceptible 
tendency toward extremes, is favorable to the spread of 
socialism, as advocated by the Internationalists. 

3. The prevalence of skepticism, also, is significant in 
this connection. A wide-spread infidelity preceded the 
French Revolution, and helped to prepare the way for 
it. A criminal in a prison on the Rhine left, a few years 
since, on the walls of his cell, the following message for 
his successors: "I will say a word to you. There is no 
heaven or hell. When once you are dead there is an end 
of everything. Therefore, ye scoundrels, grab whatever 
you can; only do not let yourselves be grabbed. 
Amen." Not only does irreligion remove all salutary 
fear of retribution hereafter, and thus give over low- 
minded men to violence and excess; but, when a man 
has lost all portion in another life, he is the more deter- 
mined to have his proportion in this. There are Chris- 
tian socialists ; but the Internationalists are gross mate- 
rialists. The socialist, Boruttau, says : ' ' No man else is 
worthy of the name of socialist save he who, himself an 
atheist, devotes his exertions with all zeal to the spread 
of atheism." The great increase, therefore, of skepticism 
in this generation, and especially of doubt touching the 
sanctions of the divine law, has prepared a quick and 
fruitful soil for socialism, of the violent and godless sort. 

4. Equality is one of the dreams of socialism. It pro- 
tests against all class distinctions. The development of 
classes, therefore, in a republic, or the widening of the 
breach between them, is provocative of socialistic agita- 
tion and growth. Among the far-reaching influences of 
mechanical invention is a tendency, as yet unchecked, 
to heighten differences of condition, to establish social 
classes, and erect barriers between them. In a sense, 
classes do and must exist wherever there are resem- 
blances and differences; but so long as the individual 



146 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

members of social classes easily rise or fall from one to 
the other, by virtue of their own acts, such classes are 
neither unrepublican nor unsafe. But, when they be- 
come practically hereditary, differences are inherited 
and increased, antipathies are strengthened, the gulf be- 
tween them is widened and they harden into casts which 
are both unrepublican and dangerous. Now the tend- 
ency of mechanical invention, under our present indus- 
trial system, is to separate classes more widely, and to 
render them hereditary. 

Before the age of machinery, master, journeymen and 
apprentices worked together on familiar terms. The ap- 
prentice looked forward to the time when he should 
receive a journeyman's wages, and the journeyman 
might reasonably hope some day to have a shop of his 
own. Under this system there was little opportunity to 
develop class distinctions and jealousies. 

Tools were not so expensive but that the workman 
might own them. And if he did not like his employer, 
he could leave ; taking with him the means of earning a 
livelihood. If he did not easily find another employer, 
he could somewhere set up for himself. This single fact 
of owning his tools made him independent. But the in- 
troduction of machinery changed all this. It could not 
be carried from place to place like a kit of tools. It was 
too expensive for the workman to own. Without the 
machinery, owned by the employer, he was helpless. If 
he found himself out of a job, he could not set up for 
himself. He has lost his independence. Thus machin- 
ery has developed a dependent class. 

Moreover machinery has rendered it vastly more dif- 
ficult to rise from the condition of an employee to that of 
an employer, thus separating these classes more widely. 
Once they were only a step apart. That step could 
be taken by a workman's employing one other. They 
wofked side by side, until the business demanded 
another "hand," and then another, until the little shop 
had grown into a large one. Thus gradually the work- 
man acquired capital — a course open to every mechanic. 



PERILS, — SOCIALISM. 147 

But since the introduction of machinery, a considerable 
capital is necessary to make a beginning. It is found 
that other things being equal, the small factory can 
not compete with the large one, hence fortunes are 
massed and factories become immense. A mechanic, 
by some happy invention or through remarkable abili- 
ties, may yet become a capitalist and an employer, but 
the condition of the average operative to-day is separated 
from that of his employer by an almost impassable 
gulf. 

The immense production which has followed the 
advent of machinery has greatly raised the standard of 
living in all classes of society. There has not been a cor- 
responding rise in wages, though they are much higher 
now than they were a hundred or fifty years ago. This 
discrepancy between wants and wages results in condi- 
tions which tend to form among operatives an heredi- 
tary class. In Massachusetts, where statistics of labor 
are the most elaborate published, the average working 
man is unable to support the average working man's 
family. In 1883 the average expenses of working men's 
families, in that state, were $754.42, while the earnings 
of workmen who were heads of families averaged $558.- 
68.1 This means that the average working man had to 
caU on his wife and children to assist in earning their 
support. We accordingly find that, in the manufactures 
and mechanical industries of the state, in 1883, there 
were engaged 28,714 children under sixteen years of age. 
Of the average working man's family 32.44 per cent, of 
the support fell upon the children and mother. I am 
not aware that the condition of the working man is at 
all exceptional in Massachusetts. ' ' In their last report, 
the Illinois Commissioners of Labor Statistics say that 
their tables of wages and cost of living are repre- 
sentative only of intelligent working men, who make 
the most of their advantages, and do not reach ' the con- 
fines of that world of helpless ignorance and destitution 

1 Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics, p. 4^4. 



148 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

in which multitudes in all large cities continually live, 
and whose only statistics are those of epidemics, pauper- 
ism, and crime.' ' Nevertheless, ' they go on to say, an 
examination of these tables will demonstrate that one- 
half of these intelligent working men of Illinois ' are not 
even able to earn enough for their daily bread, and have 
to depend upon the labor of women and children to eke 
out their miserable existence. '"i In 1880, of persons 
engaged in all occupations in the United States, 1,118,- 
356 were children fifteen years of age or under. ^ Their 
number, in ten years, increased 21 per cent, more 
rapidly than the population. These children ought to 
be in the school instead of in the mill or the mine. How 
much longer will the operatives of the United States be 
distinguished for their intelligence if our children under 
sixteen are pressed into the factory? Child labor, which 
Professor Ely says ^ is increasing with ' ' alarming rapid- 
ity," tends to stunt the body and cramp the mind. 
In mills and factories children are put to feeding ma- 
chines, and the narrow round of work prevents a 
natural development of either mind or body. Girls 
brought up in the factories, or whose mothers are there 
employed, make poor housekeepers, learn little of those 
arts of economy by which the handful of meal and the 
cruse of oil of a meager income waste not, neither fail. 
They make poor wives, and keep their husbands poor. 
Thus the children of another generation are forced into 
the factory. Hence the tendency to establish a class of 
hereditary operatives which class is already established 
in Europe, and will appear here in due time. 

On the other hand machinery also tends to create a 
class of capitalists and monopolists.* Before the age of 



1 Henry George's Social Problems, p. 100. 

2 Compendium of the Tenth Census, Part II. p. 1358. 

3 Political Economy, p. 259. 

* After discussing these tendencies of modern manufactures, De Tocque- 
ville advises the friends of democracy to "keep their eyes anxiously fixed 
in this direction," and adds: " For if ever a permanent inequality of condi- 
tions and aristocracy again penetrate into the world, it may be predicted 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 149 

machinery, manufacturing power was, of course, mus- 
cular. That power belonged to the workmen, and could 
not be monopolized or centralized without their consent. 
Every man had a fair chance to compete with his fellow ; 
no one enjoyed an immeasurable advantage ; but ma- 
chinery enables one man to own a power equal to that 
of a thousand or ten thousand men. Modern science 
and invention, in subjecting mighty forces of nature to 
human control, have made the Anakim our slaves. 
Here is an army of giants who never hunger and never 
tire, who never suffer and never complain; when 
ordered to stop working, they never raise bread riots. 
They always recognize their masters, and obey without 
question and without conscience. The availability and 
magnitude of these forces make the concentration of 
power both certain and dangerous. The masters of 
these forces are the Caesars and Napoleons of modern 
society. Within certain limits, other things being 
equal, the larger the manufactory the cheaper the pro- 
duct, and the greater the percentage of profit on the 
investment. This law results in the massing of capital. 
These great enterprises demand able men to organize 
and conduct them. The employer is no longer a work- 
man with his employees ; his work is mental, not man- 
ual ; it tasks and strengthens all his powers while that 
of his workmen tends to cramp their faculties. He has 
little personal acquaintance with his employees, and, 
with noble exceptions, has little personal interest in 
them. Thus these classes grow apart. Says Mr. Lecky : 
"Every change of conditions which widens the chasm 
and impairs the sympathy between rich and poor, can- 
not fail, however beneficial may be its effects, to bring 
with it grave dangers to the state. It is incontestable 
that the immense increase of manufacturing population 
has had this tendency. "^ And not only are these 



that this is the channel by which they will enter." Denaocracy in Amer- 
ica, Book Second, Chap. 20, 
1 England in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. II. p. 693. 



150 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

classes becoming further removed from each other, they 
are also becoming organized against each other. Capital 
is combining in powerful corporations and '* trusts," 
and labor is combining in powerful trades-unions. And 
these opposing organizations make trials of strength, 
offer terms and conditions of surrender, like two hostile 
armies. 

5. Again socialism fattens on discontent. A socialist 
paper says: " Create disgust with, and rebellion against, 
existing usages, for success lies through general dissatis- 
faction." 

It is easier to arouse the discontent of the workman 
now than it once was ; among other reasons because the 
introduction of machinery and the division of labor 
have made a large proportion of work monotonous and 
void of all interest. Formerly in every trade there was 
a great variety of work. A blacksmith, for instance, 
was not master of his trade until he could make a thou- 
sand things, from a nail to an iron fence. There was 
relief from monotony, and scope for ingenuity and taste. 
But machinery is introduced, and with it important 
changes. It is discovered that the subdivision of labor 
both improves and cheapens the product. And this 
double advantage has stimulated the tendency in that 
direction until a single article that was once made by 
one workman now passes through perhaps threescore 
pairs of hands, each doing a certain part of the work on 
every piece. Manchester workmen, complaining of the 
monotony of their work, said to Mr. Cook: "It is the 
same thing day by day, sir ; it's the same little thing ; 
one little, little thing, over and over and over." Think 
of making pin-heads, ten hours a day, every working 
day in the week, for a year — twenty, forty, fifty years ! 
In a nail mill, many workmen in the midst of a clatter 
enough to drown thought, do their day's work by press- 
ing into the jaws of an ever-ravenous machine a small 
bar of iron, which they turn rapidly from side to side. 
Think of making that one movement for a life-time ! 
Such dreary monotony is the most wearisome of all 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 151 

manual labor. It admits of little interest and no enthu- 
siasm in one's work ; and, worst of all, it tends to cramp 
the mind and to belittle the man. Once the man who 
made the nail could make the iron fence, also ; now he 
cannot even make the nail, but only feed a machine that 
makes it. Political economists tell us that the minute 
division of labor tends to deteriorate the operative. 
This tendency may of course be more than counter- 
balanced by other and elevating influences, like those of 
education, the press, the ballot. Such influences have 
made the mechanics of to-day far more intelligent than 
were those of seventy-five or one hundred years ago, in 
spite of the deteriorating tendencies of the minute divi- 
sion of labor. But this increased intelligence enables 
the operator better to appreciate the belittling influence 
of his task, renders it the more irksome and makes him 
the more dissatisfied with the system under which he 
labors. 

Furthermore, a sense of insecurity ministers to the 
discontent of working men. Invention is liable, any 
day, to render a given tool antiquated, and this or that 
technical skill useless. Every great labor-saving in- 
vention — though it eventually increases the demand 
for labor, helps forward civilization and adds to hu- 
man comfort — temporarily throws great numbers out 
of employment. The operative, who for years confined 
himself to one thing, has, thereby, largely lost the power 
of adaptation. He cannot turn his hand to this or that ; 
he is very likely too old to learn a new trade or acquire 
new technical skill; he has no alternative; and unless 
anchored by a family, probably turns tramp. 

Competition leads to over-production, which results 
in closing mills and factories for long periods, thus for 
the time being swelling the floating population. One of 
the striking characteristics of modern cities is the insta- 
bility of the poorer class of inhabitants, most of whom 
move every year or oftener, and many of them every 
three or four months. We are told that the condition of 
working men everywhere has vastly improved during 



152 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

the last half century, and this is probably true, but it 
has not prevented a rapid growth of socialism in Europe ; 
and the fact that American workmen are better off than 
European, will not prevent its spread here. De Tocque- 
ville observed and wondered that the masses find their 
position more intolerable the more it is improved. This 
is because the man improves faster than his condition ; 
his wants increase more rapidly than his comforts. » A 
savage, having nothing, is perfectly contented so long 
as he wants nothing. The first step toward civilizing 
him is to create a want. Men rise in the scale of civili- 
zation only as their wants rise; and, wherever a man 
may be on that scale, to awaken wants which cannot be 
satisfied is to provoke discontent as surely as if comforts 
were taken from him. Macaulay argues that the nine- 
teenth century is the golden age of England, rather than 
the seventeenth, because then ' ' noblemen were destitute 
of comforts, the want of which would be intolerable to a 
modern footman, and farmers and shop-keepers break- 
fasted on loaves the very sight of which would raise a 
riot in a modern workhouse," and especially because 
few knights had ' ' libraries as good as may now perpetu- 
ally be found in a servants' hall, or in the back parlor of 
a small shop-keeper."^ The evidence of progress is 
found not so much in the fact that the footman has a 
library as that he wants it. There has been a wonderful 
' ' leveling up ' ' of the common people, and their wants 
have risen accordingly. It is very true that within a 
century there has been a great multiplication of the 
comforts of life among the masses; but the question is 
ichether that increase has kept pace with the multiplica- 
tion of wants. The mechanic of to-day who has much, 
may be poorer than his grandfather, who had little. A 
rich man may be poor, and a poor man may be rich. 
Poverty is something relative, not absolute. I do not 
mean simply that a rich man is poor by the side of one 
richer. That man is poor who lacks the means of sup- 

1 History of England, Chap. HI. 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 153 

plying what seem to him reasonable wants. The hori- 
zon of the working man, during this century, has been 
marvelously expanded; there has been a prodigious 
multiplication of his wants. The peasant of a few gen- 
erations ago knew little of any lot save his own. He 
saw an aristocracy above him, which enjoyed peculiar 
privileges ; but these were often justified in his eyes by 
superior intelligence and manners. The life of the rich 
and great was far removed from him and vague. He 
was not discontented for lack of luxuries of which he 
knew nothing. But modern manufactures and com- 
merce and shop windows have made all luxuries famil- 
iar to all eyes. The working man of to-day in the 
United States has probably had a common school educa- 
tion, has traveled somewhat, attended expositions, vis- 
ited libraries, art galleries and museums ; through books 
he has become more or less acquainted with all countries 
and all classes of society; he reads the papers, he is 
vastly more intelligent than his grandfather was, he 
lives in a larger world and has many more wants. 
Indeed, his wants are as boundless as his means are lim- 
ited. Education increases the capability of enjoyment; 
and this capability is increasing among the many more 
rapidly than the means of gratification ; hence a grow- 
ing popular discontent. 

There is much dissatisfaction among the masses of 
Europe. There would be more if there were greater 
popular intelligence. Place Americans in the circum- 
stances under which the peasant of Continental Europe 
lives, and there would be a revolution in twenty-four 
hours. Hopeless poverty, therefore, in the United States, 
where there is greater intelligence, will be more rest- 
less, and more easily become desperate than in Europe. 
Many of our working men are beginning to feel that, 
under the existing industrial system, they are con- 
demned to hopeless poverty. We have already seen 
that the average working man in Massachusetts and 
Illinois is unable to support his family. At that rate, 
how long will it take him to become the owner of a 



154 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

home? Of males engaged in the industries of Massachu- 
setts in 1875, only one in one hundred owned a house. 
When a working man is unable to earn a home, or to 
lay by something for old age, when sickness or the 
closing of the factory for a few weeks, means debt, is it 
strange that he becomes discontented? 

And how are such items as the following, which ap- 
peared in the papers of January, 1880, likely to strike 
discontented laborers? "The profits of the Wall Street 
Kings the past year were enormous. It is estimated 
that Vanderbilt made $30,000,000; Jay Gould, $15,000,- 
000; Eussell Sage, $10,000,000; Sidney Dillon, $10,000,000; 
James E. Keene, $8,000,000; and three or four others 
from one to two millions each ; making a grand total for 
ten or twelve estates of about eighty millions of dollars." 
Is it strange if the working man thinks he is not getting 
his due share of the wonderful increase of national 
wealth? 

Many wage-workers have come to feel that the capital- 
ist is their natural enemy and that he is always ready, 
when opportunity offers, to sacrifice them and their 
families to his selfish gains. This does the greatest 
injustice to some employers, who, in times of depression, 
run their factories for months at a daily loss to them- 
selves, rather than throw their workmen out of employ- 
ment. But such capitalists are as rare as they are noble. 
More do not hesitate to enter in to combinations power- 
ful enough to command the trade, and then stop work 
for weeks and months in order to inflate prices, already 
fair. In November, 1883, the Association of Nail-makers 
ordered a suspension in order to raise prices ; and for five 
weeks 8,000 workmen were thrown out of employment, 
just as winter was coming on. Every mill in the West 
was in the ' ' pool " ; the suffering workmen, therefore, 
could not gain employment by going from one to 
another. They had learned to do but one thing, and 
could not turn their hand to anything else. There was 
nothing to do but nurse their discontent. Those Novem- 
ber and December weeks were a good spring-time for 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 155 

sowing socialistic seed. The Liverpool Cotton Exchange 
in 1882 by manipulating prices, stopped 15,000,000 spin- 
les, thus taking the bread out of the mouths of thou- 
sands of men, women, and children. The above simply 
illustrates a strong tendency toward combination and 
monopoly, which is one of the darkest clouds on our 
industrial and social horizon. Many industries are com- 
bining to force down production — that means that work- 
ing men are thrown out of employment ; and to force up 
prices— that means increased cost of living. There are 
great numbers of "syndicates" or "trusts," all formed 
in the interest of capitalists. Small dealers must enter 
the combination or be crushed. Once in, they must sub- 
mit to the dictation of the " large " men. Thus power is 
being gathered more and more into the hands of con- 
scienceless monopolies. 

Adam Smith thought wheat was less liable than any 
other commodity to be monopolized by speculators, 
because " its owners can never be collected in one place." 
But this supposed impossibility is practically overcome 
by the railway and telegraph, and now Boards of Trade 
arbitrarily make and unmake the prices of food, and 
wheat is as easily "cornered" as anything else. A 
single firm in Chicago in 1880, gained control of the pork 
market, more than doubled the price, and cleared over 
seven million dollars on a single deal, the influence of 
which in advancing prices was felt in every part of the 
world. The full significance of such transactions is seen 
only when we consider, as has been shown by Drs. Drys- 
dale and Farr, of England, that the death rate rises and 
falls with the prices of food. When the necessaries of 
life are "too easily " secured, combinations declare a 
war against plenty, production is stopped, and tens of 
thousands are forbidden to earn while prices rise. Thus, 
in this land of plenty, a few men may, at their pleasure, 
order a famine in thousands of homes. 

This is modern and republican feudalism. These 
American barons and lords of labor have probably more 
power and less responsibility than many an olden feudal 



156 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

lord. They close the factory or the mine, and thousands 
of workmen are forced into unwilling idleness. The cap- 
italist can arbitrarily raise the price of necessaries, can 
prevent men's working, but has no responsibility, mean- 
while, as to their starving. Here is " taxation without 
representation " with a vengeance. We have developed 
a despotism vastly more oppressive and more exasper- 
ating than that against which the thirteen colonies 
rebelled. 

Working men are apt to be improvident. It is often 
their own fault that enforced idleness so soon brings 
want. Though, at times, they know enough of want, as 
a class they know little of self-denial. They generally 
live up to the limit of their means. If wages are good, 
they have the best the market affords ; when work and 
credit fail, they go hungry. Neither the capitalist nor 
the laborer has a monopoly of the fault for the diificul- 
ties existing between them. But our inquiry is after 
facts, not faults; and the fact of improvidence on the 
part of many working men only makes their discontent 
the deeper and more certain. 

A communistic leader, who visited America thirty-five 
years ago, was asked what he thought of the condition 
of the working classes here. "It is very bad," he 
replied, "they are so discouragingly prosperous." But 
the growth of dissatisfaction and of socialism among our 
wage-workers, in recent years, has taken place notwith- 
standing generally good harvests and a great increase of 
aggregate wealth. Poor harvests were potent causes in 
bringing Louis XVI. to the guillotine, and precipitating 
the Reign of Terror. We must, of course, expect them 
to occur as heretofore, perhaps recur in successive years. 
The condition of the working man will then probably be 
bad enough to satisfy the most pessimistic agitator. 
Every such '.' winter of discontent " among laborers is 
made "glorious summer" for the growth of socialistic 
ideas. 

We have glanced at the causes which are ministering 
to the growth of socialism among us : a wide-spread dis- 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 157 

content on the part of our wage-working population, the 
development of classes and class antipathies, popular 
skepticism, a powerful individualism, and immigration. 
If these conditions should remain constant, socialism 
would continue to grow; but most of these causes are 
becoming more active. Within the life-time of some now 
living, population will be three times as dense in the 
United States as it is to-day. Wage-workers, now one- 
half of all our workers, will multiply more rapidly than 
the population. After our agricultural land is all occu- 
pied, as it will be a few years hence, our agricultural 
population which heretofore has not been socialistically 
inclined, will increase but little, while great manufac- 
turing and mining towns will go on multiplying and to 
multiply. In the development of our manufacturing 
industries and our mining resources we have made, as 
yet, hardly more than a beginning. When these indus- 
tries have been multiplied ten-fold, the evils which now 
attend them will be correspondingly multiplied, if pres- 
ent tendencies continue unchecked. 

It must not be forgotten that, side by side with this 
deep discontent of intelligent and unsatisfied wants, has 
been developed, in modern times, a tremendous enginery 
of destruction, which offers itself to every man. Since 
the French Revolution nitro-glycerine, illuminating gas, 
petroleum, dynamite, the revolver, the repeating rifle 
and the Gatling gun have all come into use. Science has 
placed in man's hand superhuman powers. Society, also, 
is become more highly organized, much more complex, 
and is therefore much more susceptible of injury. There 
never was a time in the history of the world when an 
enemy of society could work such mighty mischief as 
to-day. The more highly developed a civilization is, the 
more vulnerable does it become. This is pVe-eminently 
true of a material civilization. Learning, statesmanship, 
character, respect for law, love of justice, cannot be 
blown up with dynamite; palaces, factories, railways, 
Brooklyn bridges, Hoosac tunnels, and all the long inven- 
tory of our material wonders are destructible by mate- 



158 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 

rial means. "The explosion of a little nitro-glycerine 
under a few water-mains would make a great city unin- 
habitable ; the blowing-up of a few railroad bridges and 
tunnels would bring famine quicker than the wall of cir- 
cumvallation that Titus drew around Jerusalem; the 
pumping of atmospheric air into the gas-mains, and the 
application of a match would tear up every street and 
level every house. " ^ We are preparing conditions which 
make possible a Reign of Terror that would beggar the 
scenes of the French Revolution. I do not regard such a 
revolution as probable^ but we have abundant reason to 
fear that such outbreaks as that which occurred in 1877 
will recur with increased violence and greatly increased 
destruction of life and property. 

Conditions at the West are peculiarly favorable to 
the growth of socialisin. The much larger proportion of 
foreigners there, and the strong tendency of immigration 
thither, will have great influence. There is a stronger 
individuality in the West. The people are less conserva- 
tive ; there is less regard for established usage and opin- 
ion. The greater relative strength of Romanism there is 
significant ; for apostate Catholics furnish the very soil 
to which socialism is indigenous. Mormonism also is 
doing a like preparatory work. It is gathering together 
great numbers of ill-balanced men, who are duped for a 
time by Mormon mummery ; but many of them, becoming 
disgusted, leave the church and with it all faith in relig- 
ion of any sort. Skeptical, soured, cranky, they are 
excellent socialistic material. Irreligion abounds much 
more than at the East ; the proportion of Christian men 
is much smaller, " Into these Western communities the 
international societies and secrel labor leagues and 
Jacobin clubs, and atheistic, infidel, rationalistic organ- 
izations of every name in the Old World, are continually 
emptying themselves. They are the natural reservoirs 
of whatever is uneasy, turbulent, antagonistic to either 
God or man among the populations across the sea. They 

^ Social Problems, p. 14, 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 159 

are also the natural places of refuge for all in our own 
country who are soured by misfortune, misanthropic, 
seekers of radical reforms, renegades, moral pariahs. 
They are hence, in the nature of things, a sort of hot- 
bed where every form of pestilent error is sure to be 
found and to come to quick fruitage. You can hardly 
find a group of ranch-men or miners from Colorado to 
the Pacific who will not have on their tongue's end the 
labor slang of Denis Kearney, the infidel ribaldry of 
Robert Ingersoll, the socialistic theories of Karl Marx." ^ 

Heretofore socialism has made few proselytes among 
farmers. Less than one-half of all the land west of the 
Mississippi is arable. The agricultural element, there- 
fore, will be a much smaller proportion of the whole 
population in the West than in the East. The industries 
of several of the great mountain states will be almost 
wholly mining and manufacturing; nearly the whole 
population, therefore, will be wage-workers — the class 
most easily discipled by socialistic agitators. The capi- 
talist is a large figure in the West. He owns the mines, 
he owns vast reaches of grazing land, and the great 
herds of cattle. ^ He has also invested in many thou- 
sands of acres of farming lands. Railroads of immense 
length have been richly subsidized with lands which will 
steadily appreciate in value. These corporations bid 
fair to become much richer and more powerful than like 
monopolies in the East. The longest eastern roads 
would hardly be considered more than first-rate side- 
tracks out West ; and some day the wealth and power 
of the western roads will be in proportion to their 
length. 

There was no immense disparity of fortune among the 



* Eev. E. P. Goodwin, D. D., Home Missionary Sermon, p. 16, 
3 At a meeting of cattle " kings " in St. Louis, there were many associations 
represented which own half a million head of stock or more. The Northern 
New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association own 800,000 cattle, besides a large 
number of horses, which graze over 15,000,000 acres of land. The Texas Live 
Stock Association own 1,000,000 cattle, 1,000,000 sheep and 350,000 horses. A 
moderate estimate of their value would be $45,000,000. 



160 PEKILS. — SOCIALISM. 

early settlers of the East. They started pretty evenly 
in the race, and it has taken several generations to de- 
velop the wide extremes of modern society; but these 
differences exist at the outset in the West. Eastern cap- 
ital has emptied itself into Western mines and herds 
and " bonanza" farms. The comparatively small popu- 
lation of the West has to-day more millionaires and 
more tramps than the whole country had a few years 
since. Many cattle and railway "kings," many gold 
and silver "kings," there rule their subjects. And in 
August, 1884, eighty tramps took possession of Castle- 
ton, Dakota, drove many families from their homes and 
committed numerous excesses. Western society is organ- 
ized at the very beginning, on the class distinctions 
which are so favorable to the growth of socialism. 

Modern civilization is called on to contend for its life 
with forces which it has evolved. Said President 
Seelye, a few years since, to the graduating class of Am- 
herst College : ' ' There is one question of our time to- 
ward which all other questions, whether of nature, of 
man, or of God, steadily tend. . . . No one will be 
likely to dispute the affirmation that the social question 
is, and is to be, the question of your time. " That ques- 
tion must be met in the United States. We need not 
quiet misgiving with the thought that popular govern- 
ment is our safety from revolution. It is because of our 
free institutions that the great conflict of socialism with 
society as now organized is likely to occur in the United 
States. There is a strong disposition among men to 
charge most of the ills of their lot to bad government, 
and to seek a political remedy for those ills. They ex- 
pect in the popularization of power to find relief. Con- 
stitutional government, a free press and free speech 
would probably quiet popular agitation in Russia for a 
generation. If Germany should become a republic, we 
should hear little of German socialism for a season. 
But all our salve of this sort is spent ; there are no more 
political rights to bestow; the people are in full pos- 
session. Here then, where there is the fullest exercise of 



PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 161 

political rights, will the people first discover that the 
ballot is not a panacea. Here, where, as we believe, the 
ultimate evolution of government has taken place, will 
restless men first attempt to live without government. 
There is nothing beyond republicanism but anarchism. 



CHAPTER X. 

PERILS. — WEALTH. 

The wealth of the United States is phenomenal. It is 
now (1890) estimated at $61,459,000,000.1 In 1880 it was 
valued at $43,642,000,000; more than enough to buy the 
Russian and Turkish Empires, the kingdoms of Sweden 
and Norway, Denmark and Italy, together with Austra- 
lia, South Africa and all South America — lands, mines, 
cities, palaces, factories, ships, flocks, herds, jewels, 
moneys, thrones, scepters, diadems and all — the entire 
possessions of 177,000,000 people. The most remarkable 
point of this comparison is the fact that European 
wealth represents the accumulations of many centuries, 
while more than half of ours has been created in twenty 
years. 

Between 1860 ^ and 1870 a million producers were de- 
stroyed by war, and not only were two great armies 
withdrawn from productive occupations, but they de- 
voted marvelous energy and ingenuity to the work 
of destruction. But, notwithstanding all this, during 
those ten years we created wealth enough to cover all 
the losses of the war in both North and South, with 
$116,000,000 to spare.3 

From 1870 to 1890 our wealth increased $31,391,000,000, 

^ The World Almanac, 1890. These statistics were compiled from returns 
made by the financial officers of the several states and territories, and 
based on the assessed valuations . 

2 In the first edition, our wealth in 1860 was given as $16,160,000,000. This 
was the value of taxed property only. Taxed and untaxed property 
amounted to $31,202,000,000, and in 18/0 to $30,068,000,000. 

3 That is, not counting as a loss the $1,250,000,000, which emancipation 
subtracted from the assets of the uation, we were $116,000,000 richer in 1870 
than we were in 1860. 



PERILS. — WEALTH. 163 



Wealth of the United States in 1890, $61,459,000,000. 



Wealth of the United States in 1880, $43,642,000,000 



Wealth of the Russian and Turliish Empires, Sweden 
and Norway, Denmark, Italy, Australia, South Africa 
and all of South America in 1880, $43,000,000,000. 



164 PERILS. — WEALTH. 

• 

almost twice the entire wealth of the Empire of Russia 
(in 1880), to be divided among 82,000,000 people. And 
this increase, it should be observed, was only a small 
part of the wealth created — the excess after supporting 
the best-fed people in the world. To the wealth of 1870 
was added, during the next twenty years, a naverage 
of more than $200,000 every hour, night and day, except 
Sunday, or $5,000,000 every week-day for that period. 
Since 1880 our wealth has mcr eased $17,817,000,000 or 40.8 
per cent. , while population has increased only about 25 
per cent. Great Britain is, by far, the richest nation of 
the Old World, and our wealth exceeded hers in 1880 by 
1276,000,000; and during the past ten years our increase 
has been much more rapid than hers. The material prog- 
ress of the United States from 1870 to 1890 is wholly 
without a parallel in the history of the world. 

It is difficult to reahze that the youngest of the nations 
is the richest, and that the richest of all nations has, 
as yet, only begun to develop its resources. The crops 
of 1888 were produced on less than one-sixth of our 
arable land, and much of our agriculture is rude; a 
much larger proportion of our mineral wealth is unde- 
veloped; and the only limit which can be set to our 
possible manufactures is the world's need. Our domes- 
tic commerce, already $18,000,000,000^ a year, will double 
and quadruple with the growth of population. Here are 
forty-four nations, so to speak — and soon to be half a 
hundred — enjoying perfect freedom of intercourse, with 
but one language and one currency, with common inter- 
ests and common institutions. In Europe, commerce 
must run a gauntlet of custom-houses, on a score of 
frontiers, and must stumble over thrice as many lan- 
guages ; while those nations, with conflicting interests and 
mutual jealousies and antipathies, exhaust much of their 
strength in watching, foiling, and crippling each other. 
Europe spends annually on the maintenance of fleets and 
armies nearly $900,000,000. And this is but little more 

? J. L. Stevens, in International Review, December, 1881. 



PERILS. — WEALTH. 165 

than one-half the actual cost; for these 3,000,000 men 
and more are withdrawn from industrial pursuits in the 
flower of their youth. If the time of privates is worth 
seventy -five cents a day, and that of officers two dollars, 
the value of labor annually lost to Europe by her stand- 
ing armies is $758,978,000. In 1889 we expended on our 
army and navy $65,000,000; and, reckoning the time of 
the private soldier here worth a dollar and a half a day, 
and that of the officer worth four dollars, the value of 
the labor lost by our army in 1889 was only $16,000,000. 
That is, in competing with Europe for wealth, our loca- 
tion is worth to us about $1,576,000,000 a year.i The 
editor of the London Spectator says: ^ " Observers in the 
Old World cannot help admiring or envying the Ameri- 
can Treasury, .... which does not know what to do 
with its wealth .... and which declares that its sav- 
ings are so vast as to impede and endanger all commer- 
cial business. . . . Much credit is due to the American 
Constitution, if only because the people worship it after 
a century's experience ; ,but this prosperity of the Treas- 
ury is not due to it, but to a situation on this planet 
unparalleled at once in its exemption from danger and 
in the natural wealth it places at the disposal of an 
industrious people." In 1880 our wealth was 23.93 per 
cent, of the wealth of all Europe ; our earnings were 28, - 
01 per cent, of those of Europe; and our increase of 
wealth was 49.28 per cent, of European increase. From 
1870 to 1880 there was a decrease of wealth per caput, in 
Europe, of nearly 3 per cent., while here there was an 
increase of 39 per cent. If existing conditions con- 
tinue, the time will undoubtedly come when the people 
of the United States will possess more wealth than all 
the nations of Europe. Our riches, together with 
the power, the problems and dangers which attend 

^ It is said our pensions cost us as much as a large standing army. This 
is true, but our pension appropriations in 1890 ($109,000,000), the largest ever 
made up to date, were not one-half as large as those made by Europe 
annually. 

2 Tlie Spectator, December 7, 1889. Quoted in Our Race, p. 124. 



166 PEBILS. — WEALTH. 

them, are to be multiplied many fold. The collective 
energy or working-power of a nation includes its human 
power, its horse power and its steam power. (The water 
power is not included.) Mr. Mulhall estimated in 1888 
that our collective energy then reached 90,000 millions 
of "foot-tons daily." That is, it was sufficient to raise 
90,000 million tons one foot in a day.^ Our working- 
power is thus found by Mr. Mulhall to be nearly equal 
to that of the United Kingdom and Germany combined, 
whose population aggregates 82,000,000 souls. He also 
estimated that in 1890 our working-power would reach 
"almost 100,000 millions of foot-tons daily." This 
reduced to man-power would be equal to 333,000,000 
men. Think of such a power at work for the enriching 
of our nation, and rapidly increasing. It is a promise of 
unspeakable wealth. And such wealth contains mighty 
possibilities, both for good and evil. Let us, in this 
connection, look at the latter. 

1. As civilization increases, wealth has more meaning, 
and money a larger r^resentative power. Civilization 
multiplies wants, which money affords the means of 
gratifying. With the growth of civilization, therefore, 
money will be an ever-increasing power, and the object 
of ever-increasing desire. Hence the danger of Mam- 
monism, growing more and more intense and infatuated. 
The love of money is the besetting sin of commercial 
peoples, and runs in the very blood of Anglo-Saxons, 
who are the great wealth-creators of the world. Our 
soil is peculiarly favorable to the growth of this ' ' root 
of all evil " ; and for two reasons. First, wealth is more 
easily amassed here than anywhere else in the world, of 
which we have already seen sufficient proof; and, sec- 
ond, wealth means more, has more power, here than 
elsewhere. Every nation has its aristocracy. In other 
lands the aristocracy is one of birth ; in ours it is one of 
wealth. It is useless for us to protest that we are demo- 



^ Mulhall's Growth of American Industries and We3.1th, p. 59. Saxon and 
Co., London. 



PERILS. — WEALTH. 167 

cratic, and to plead the leveling character of our institu- 
tions. There is among us an aristocracy of recognized 
power, and that aristocracy is one of wealth. No her- 
aldry offends our republican prejudices. Our ensigns 
armorial are the trade-mark. Our laws and customs 
recognize no noble titles ; but men can forego the husk 
of a title who possess the fat ears of power. In England 
there is an eager ambition to rise in rank, an ambition 
as rarely gratified as it is commonly experienced. 
With us, aspiration meets with no such iron check as 
birth. A man has only to build higher the pedestal of 
his wealth. He may stand as high as he can build. His 
wealth cannot secure to him genuine respect, to be sure ; 
but, for that matter, neither can birth. It will secure 
to him an obsequious deference. It may purchase polit- 
ical distinction. It is power. In the Old World, men 
commonly live and die in the condition in which they 
are born. The peasant may be discontented, may covet 
what is beyond his reach; but his desire draws no 
strength from expectation. Heretofore, in this country, 
almost any laborer, by industry and economy, might 
gain a competence, and even a measure of wealth ; and, 
though now we are beginning to approximate the condi- 
tions of European labor, young men, generally, when 
they start in life, still expect to become rich; and, 
thinking not to serve their god for naught, they com- • 
monly become faithful votaries of Mammon. Thus the 
prizes of wealth in the United States, being at the same 
time greater and more easily won, and the lists being 
open to all comers, the rush is more general, and the 
race more eager than elsewhere. 

" But they that will be rich, fall into temptation and 
a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which 
drown men in destruction and perdition, "i They who 
"will be rich," are tempted to resort to methods less 
laborious and more and more unscrupulous. Fierce 
competition is leading to frequent adulterations, and 

» 1 Tim. vi. 9. 



168 PERILS. — WEALTH. 

many forms of bribery. It is driving legitimate busi- 
ness to illegitimate methods. Merchants offer prizes to 
draw trade, and employ the lottery to enrich themselves 
and debauch the public. The growth of the spirit of 
speculation is ominous. The salaries of clerks, the busi- 
ness capital, the bank deposits and trust funds of all 
sorts which disappear " on 'change," indicate how wide- 
spread is the unhealthy haste to be rich. And such 
have the methods of speculation become that "The 
Exchange" has degenerated into little better than a 
euphemism for "gambling hell." " While one bushel in 
seven of the wheat crop of the United States is received 
by the Produce Exchange of New York, its traders buy 
and sell two for every one that comes out of the ground. 
When the cotton plantations of the South yielded less 
than six million bales, the crop on the New York Cotton 
Exchange was more than thirty-two millions. Pennsyl- 
vania does well to run twenty-four millious of barrels of 
oil in a year ; but New York City will do as much in two 
small rooms in one week, and the Petroleum Exchanges 
sold altogether last year two thousand million barrel^." ^ 
Such facts indicate how small a portion of the transac- 
tions of the ''Exchange" is legitimate business, and 
how large a proportion is simple gambling. Mammon- 
ism is corrupting popular morals in many ways. 
Sunday amusements of every kind— horse-racing, base 
ball, theaters, beer-gardens, steamboat and railroad 
excursions — are all provided because there is money in 
them. Licentious literature floods the land, poisoning 
the minds of the young and polluting their lives, 
because there is money in it. Gambling flourishes in 
spite of the law, and actually under its license, because 
there is money in it. And that great abomination of 
desolation, that triumph of Satan, that more than ten 
Egyptian plagues in one — the liquor traffic — grows and 
thrives at the expense of every human interest, because 
there is money in it. Ever since greed of gold sold the 

1 Henry D. Lloyd, North American Review, August, 1883, p. 118. 



PERILS. — WEALTH. 169 

Christ and raffled for his garments, it has crucified 
every form of virtue between thieves. x\nd, while Mam- 
monism corrupts morals, it blocks reforms. Men who 
have favors to ask of the public are slow to follow their 
convictions into any unpopular reform movement. 
They can render only a surreptitious service. Their 
discipleship must needs be secret, ' ' for fear of the " cus- 
tomers or clients or patients. It is Mammonism which 
makes most men invertebrates. When important Mor- 
mon legislation was pending, certain New York mer- 
chants telegraphed to members of Congress : ' ' New York 
sold $13,000,000 worth of goods to Utah last year. Hands 
off ! " The tribe of Demetrius, the Ephesian silver- 
smith, is everywhere : men quick to perceive when this 
their craft by which they have their wealtli is in danger 
of being set at naught. ' ' Nothing is more timorous than 
a million dollars — except two millions. " 

Mammonism is also corrupting the ballot-box. The 
last four presidential elections have shown that the two 
great political parties are nearly equal in strength. The 
vast majority of voters on both sides are party men, 
who vote the same way year after year. The result of 
the election is determined by the floating vote. Of this, 
a comparatively small portion is thoroughly intelligent 
and conscientious ; the remainder is, for the most part, 
without convictions, without principle and thoroughly 
venal ; hence the great temptation to bribery, to which 
both parties yield, i Moreover, the influence of great 



1 In the first edition, written in 1885, appeared the following^ sentence. 
" And if tlie two parties take distinct issue on economic questions— which 
seems hkely — each believing that the success of the other would involve 
great financial disaster, corruption money will become an increasingly im- 
poi'tant political factor." Three years later the two parties did take issue on 
economic questions,as anticipated ; and never before was bribery so extensive, 
so systematic and so unblushing. Said The New York Times, October 21, 1889, 
" This crime of bribery and corruption at the polls has been on the increase 
in recent years until it has become a portentous evil, menacing the very 
foundations of free institutions." 

Hon. William M. Ivins, in an address before the Congregational Club of 
New York, November 19, 1888, said he was confident that over 85,000 men in 



1% PERILS. — WEALTH. 

corporations, which so often controls legislation, is mon- 
eyed influence. 

2. Again, by reason of our enormous wealth and its 
rapid increase, we are threatened with a gross material- 
ism. The English epithet applied by Matthew Arnold to 
Chicago, " too beastly prosperous," has a subtile mean- 
ing, which perhaps was not intended by the distin- 
guished visitor. Material growth may be so much more 
vigorous than the moral and intellectual as to have a 
distinctly brutalizing tendency. Life becomes sensuous ; 
that is deemed real which can be seen and handled, 
weighed and transported; and that only has value 
which can be appraised in dollars and cents. Wealth 
was intended to minister to life, to enlarge it ; when life 
becomes only a ministry to enlarge wealth, there is mani- 
fest perversion and degradation. We may say of it as 
Young said of life — ' ' An end deplorable ! A means di- 
vine! " Says Mr. Whipple: ^ " there is danger that 

the nation's worship of labors whose worth is measured 
by money will give a sordid character to its mightiest 
exertions of power, eliminate heroism from its motives, 
destroy all taste for lofty speculation, and all love for 
ideal beauty, and inflame individuals with a devouring 
self-seeking, corrupting the very core of the national 
life." We have undoubtedly developed a larger propor- 
tion of men of whom the above is a faithful picture than 
any other Christian nation ; men to whom Agassiz's re- 
mark, " I am offered five hundred dollars a night to lec- 
ture, but I decline all invitations, for I have no time to 
make money," is simply incomprehensible; it dazes 
them. 

There is a "balance of power" to be preserved in 
the United States as well as in Europe. Our safety 

New York City alone " received money for their alleged services or as bribers 
in the election during the recent campaign. . . . And this sum has no reference 
to the vast amounts placed in the hands of individuals with the open and 
avowed purpose of buying votes. ... I have compared these figures with 
many practical politicians, and they all agree that they are conservative." 
* Character and Characteristic Men, p. 142. 



PEillLg. — WE ALTS* ni 

demands the preservation of a balance between our ma- 

____jfcfirial power and our moral and intellectual power. The 

means of self-gratification should not outgrow the power 

of self-control. Steam-power would have been useless 

had we not found in iron, or something else, a greater 

pow^er of resistance. And, should we discover a motor 
a hundred times more powerful than steam, it would 
prove not only useless but fearfully destructive, unless 
we could find a still greater resisting power. Increasing 
wealth will only prove the means of destruction, unless 
it is accompanied by an increasing power of control, a 
stronger sense of justice, and a more intelligent compre- 
hension of its obligations. 

There is a certain unfriendliness between the material 
and the spiritual. The vivid apprehension of the one 
makes the other seem unreal. When the life of the 
senses is intense, spiritual existence and truths are dim ; 
and when St. Paul was exalted to a spiritual ecstasy, the 
senses were so closed that he could not tell whether he was 
" in the body or out of the body." A time of commer- 
cial stagnation is apt to be a time of spiritual quicken- 
ing, while great material prosperity is likely to be ac- 
companied by spiritual dearth. A poor nation is much 
more sensitive to the power of the gospel than a rich 
one. So Christ taught : ' ' How hardly shall they that 
have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" "It is 
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than 
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!"^ 
Words as true now as when they were first uttered, and 
having a fuller meaning in the nineteenth century than 
in the first. 

3. Again, great and increasing wealth subjects us to 
all the perils of luxuriousness. Nations, in their begin- 
nings, are poor ; poverty is favorable to hardihood and 
industry; industry leads to thrift and wealth; wealth 
produces luxury, and luxury results in enervation, cor- 
ruption, and destruction. This is the historic round 

1 Mark x, 23, 25. 



1 72 PERILS. — WEALTH. 

which nations have run. "Nations have decayed, but 
it has never been with the imbecility of age."^ " Ava- 
rice and luxury have been the ruin of every great state. " ^ 
Her American possessions made Spain the richest and 
most powerful nation of Europe; but wealth induced 
luxury and idleness, whence came poverty and degrada- 
tion. Rome was never stronger in all the seeming ele- 
ments of power than at the moment of her fall. She 
had grown rich, and riches had corrupted her morals, 
rendered her effeminate, and made her an easy prey to 
the lusty barbarian of the North. The material splen- 
dor of Israel reached its climax in the glory of Solomon's 
reign, in which silver was made to be in Jerusalem as 
stones ; but it was followed by the immediate dismem- 
berment of the kingdom. Under all that magnificence, 
at which even Oriental monarchs wondered, was spring- 
ing a discontent which led to speedy revolt. Bancroft 
has wisely said that, ' ' Sedition is bred in the lap of lux- 
ury." 

The influence of mechanical invention is to stimulate 
luxurious living. We are told by Edward Atkinson 
that by the hand looms in the South ten hours' work will 
produce eight yards of cloth, while in the factory of 
New England ten hours' work will produce 800 yards. 
In 1888 the steam power of the United States was equal 
to the working-power of 161,333,000 men; ^ as if one-half 
of all the male workmen on the globe had engaged in 
our service. When we remember that this machinery 
is an enormous producer of the necessaries, comforts, 



and luxuries of life, but is not a consumer of the same, 
we see how immensely the average consumption per 
caput has increased. As luxuries are thus cheapened 
and brought within the reach of an ever- widening circle, 
there is an increasing tendency toward self-indulgence. 
Herodotus said : " It is a law of nature that faint-hearted 



^ Charles Sumner. 

2 Livy. 

3 Mulhall's Growth of American Industries and Wealth, p. 70. 



PERILS. — WEALTH. 173 

men should be the fruit of luxurious countries ; for we 
never find that the same soil produces delicacies and 
heroes." Is there not danger that our civilization will 
become tropical? The temperate zone has produced the 
great nations, because in it the conditions of life have 
been sufficiently hard to arouse energy and develop 
strength. Where men are pampered by nature, they 
sink to a low level; and where civilization is of the 
pampering sort the tendency is the same. By means of 
coal, which Mr. Emerson calls a "portable climate," 
together with increasing wealth and luxuries, we are 
multiplying tropical conditions here in the North. 

The splendor of our riches will doubtless dazzle the 
world ; but history declares, in the ruins of Babylon and 
Thebes, of Carthage and Rome, that wealth has no con- 
serving power ; that it tends rather to enervate and cor- 
rupt. Our wonderful material prosperity, which is the 
marvel of other nations, and the boast of our own, may 
hide a decaying core. 

4. Again, another danger is the marked and increas- 
ing tendency toward a congestion of wealth. The enor- 
mous concentration of power in the hands of one man is 
unrepublican, and dangerous to popular institutions. 
The framers of our government aimed to secure the dis- 
tribution of power. They were careful to make the sev- 
eral departments — executive, legislative, and judicial — 
operate as checks on each other. An executive, chosen 
by the people and responsible to them, may exercise but 
little authority ; and after a short period he must return 
it to them. But a money -king may double, quadruple, 
centuple his wealth, if he can. He may exercise vastly 
more power than the governor of his state; but he is 
irresponsible. He is not a constitutional monarch, but a 
czar. He is not chosen by the people with reference to 
his fitness to administer so great a trust ; he may lack 
utterly all moral qualifications for it. We have indeed, 
some rich men who are an honor to our civilization ; but 
the power of many millions is almost certain to find its 
way into strong and unscrupulous hands. Our money- 



174 PERILS. — WEALTH. 

king must not, after two or four years, return his power 
to the people; he has a life tenure of office, provided 
only his grip upon his golden scepter be strong. Less 
than than thirty years ago, Emerson wrote for our 
wonder : ' ' Some English private fortunes reach, and 
some exceed, a million dollars a year." At least one 
American has had an income of $1,000,000 a month; and 
others follow hard after him. A writer in The Forum i 
gives a list of seventy names of persons in the United 
States, representing an aggregate wealth of $2,700,000,- 
000, or an average of $37,500,000 each. "It would be 
easy," he says, "for any specially well-informed person 
to make up a list of one hundred persons averaging $25,- 
000,000 each, in addition to ten averaging $100,000,000 
each. No such list of concentrated wealth could be 
given in any other country in the world." 

Superfluity on the one hand, and dire want on the 
other — the millionaire and the tramp — are the comple- 
ment each of the other. The classes from which we 
have most to fear are the two extremes of society — the 
dangerously rich and the dangerously poor; and the 
former are much more to be feared than the latter. 
Siaid Dr. Howard Crosby: "The danger which 
threatens the uprooting of society, the demolition of 
civil institutions, the destruction of liberty, and the 
desolation of all, is that which comes from the rich and 
powerful classes in the community. " '^ " The great estates 
of Rome, in the time of the Caesars, and of France in 
the time of the Bourbons, rivaled those of the United 
States to-day ; but both nations were on their way to the 
frenzy of revolution, not in spite of their wealth, but, 
in some true sense, because of it." ^ We have seen, in 
tl^e preceding chapter, that mechanical invention tends 
to create operative and capitalist classes, and render 
them hereditary. It is the tendency of our civilization 
to destroy the easy gradation from poor to rich which 

» Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, in Forum for November, 1889. 
• North American Review, April, 1883, p. 346. 
' Editorial in Christian Union, October 16, 1884. 



PERILS. — WEALTH. 175 

now exists, and to divide society into only two classes — 
the rich and the comparatively poor. In a new country 
almost any one can do business successfully, and broad 
margins will save him from the results of blunders 
which would elsewhere be fatal. But, with growing 
population and increasing facilities of communication, 
competition becomes severe, and then a slight advan- 
tage makes the difference between success and failure. 
Accumulated capital is not a slight, but an immense 
advantage. " To him that hath, shall be given. " There 
will, therefore, be an increasing tendency toward the 
centralization of great wealth in corporations, which will 
simply eat up the small manufacturers and the small 
dealers. As the two classes of rich and poor grow more 
distinct, they will become more estranged, and whether 
the rich, like Sydney Smith, come to regard poverty as 
"infamous," it is quite certain that many of the poor 
will look upon wealth as criminal. 

We have traced some of the natural tendencies of 
great and increasing wealth. It should be observed 
that these tendencies will grow stronger, because wealth 
is increasing much more rapidly than population. Re- 
markable as the growth of the latter is, it being four 
times the European rate of increase from 1870 to 1880, 
and three times that of England or Germany, the multi- 
plication of wealth has been even more remarkable. In 
one generation, 1850-1880, our national wealth increased 
more than six fold, and, notwithstanding the growth of 
population, the wealth per caput increased nearly three 
fold. There is reason to believe that this rate of increase 
will be sustained for years to come. If it is, the danger 
from mammonism, materialism, luxuriousness, and the 
congestion of wealth will be a constantly increasing 
peril. 

It remains to be shown that the dangers of wealth are 
greater at the West than at the East. There is more of 
mammonism there. With rare exceptions, the West is 
being filled with a selected population, and the principle 
of selection is the desire to better their worldly condi- 



176 PEEILS. — WEALTH. 

tion. Nineteen men of every twenty (and the twentieth 
is either an invahd or a home missionary) will tell you 
that they went there for the express purpose of making 
money. Where land is being rapidly taken, and real 
estate of all sorts is rapidly appreciating in value, men 
make every possible present endeavor with reference to 
the future. Under such conditions the race after wealth 
becomes peculiarly eager. The gambling spirit which 
always prevails in mining regions exerts a wide influ- 
ence, even in agricultural states. Farmers often rent 
land, put their entire capital into a great acreage, and 
stake everything on a single crop. The sudden wealth 
often realized in the mines stimulates the general haste 
to be rich. And where riches are almost the sole object 
of endeavor, their possession gives greater power. In 
the Eocky Mountains a man may be to-day a caterer or 
bar-tender, fit for that and nothing more; to-morrow, 
without any good wit of his own, a millionaire; next 
day, because " Mammon wins his way where seraphs 
might despair,-' a lieutenant-governor or United States 
senator. The demoralizing atmosphere of the New 
West is seen in the fact that there are everywhere 
church-members who seem to have left their religion 
behind when they crossed the Missouri. Many men who 
lived reputable Christian lives in the East are there 
swept into the great maelstrom of world! iness. 

As a comment on our gross materialism here in the 
United States, and especially in the far West, I will 
quote a short passage from the note book of the musi- 
cian, Gottschalk. Being ill for three days in a town in 
Nevada, and finding himself utterly deserted, he gives 
vent to his feelings in these words : "I defy your find- 
ing, in the whole of Europe, a village where an artist of 
reputation would find himself as isolated as I have 
been here. If, in place of playing the piano, of having 
composed two or three hundred pieces, of having given 
seven or eight thousand concerts, of having given to 
the poor one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, of 
having been knighted twice, I had sold successfully for 



PEEILS. — WEALTH. 177 

ten years, quarters of salted hog, my poor, isolated 
chamber would have been invaded by adorers and ad- 
mirers." 

There is more danger of luxuriousness at the West, a 
greater extravagance than among Eastern people of like 
means. Money comes faster and goes faster. There is 
little of that strict economy which is so often practiced 
at the East. A western town of ten thousand inhabi- 
tants will boast of " carrying all the style " of an eastern 
city of fifty thousand. New villages are likely to have 
more electric lights and telephones than some of the 
great cities of Europe. The millionaires of the West 
were not many of them born to wealth. They have 
made their riches within a few years ; and such are the 
men to spend money freely. They become the social 
legislators, and help to create customs of free expendi- 
ture. 

The striking centralization of capital which has 
already taken place at the West was sufficiently noticed 
in the preceding chapter. Enough has been said to 
show that the West is peculiarly exposed to the dangers 
with which wealth threatens the nation. 




Cities of More Than 
8,000 Inhabitants. 



Remaining population in 1890. Showing Relative Growth of 
Cities to entire Popialation. 



CHAPTER XI. 

PERILS.— THE CITY. 

The city is the nerve center of our civilization. It is 
also the storm center. The fact, therefore, that it is 
growing much more rapidly than the whole population 
is full of significance. In 1790 one-thirtieth of the popu- 
lation of the United States lived in cities of 8,000 inhabi- 
tants and over; in 1800, one twenty-fifth; in 1810, and 
also in 1820, one-twentieth; in 1830, one- sixteenth ; in 
1840, one-twelfth ; in 1850, one-eighth ; in 1860, one-sixth ; 
in 1870, a little over one-fifth ; and in 1880, 22. 5 per cent. , 
or nearly one-fourth.i From 1790 to 1880 the whole popu- 
lation increased twelve fold, the urban population eighty- 
six fold. From 1830 to 1880 the whole population in- 
creased a little less than four fold, the urban population 
thirteen fold. From 1870 to 1880 the whole population 
increased thirty per cent., the urban population forty 
per cent. 2 During the half century preceding 1880, 
population in the city increased more than four times as 
rapidly as that of the village and country. In 1800 there 
were only six cities in the United States which had a 
population of 8,000 or more. In 1880 there were 286, and 
in 1890, 437.3 



» Compendium of the Tenth Census, Part 1, pp. xxx and 8. The Elev- 
enth Census has not yet given us the urban population in 1890. 

' Mr. William S. Springer in The Forum, December 1890, estimates from 
reports and semi-official data that the increase of rural population from 1880 
to 1890 was only eight per cent., while that of the urban population was more 
than 57 per cent. 

s The first official covmt. The final official count will doubtless make some 
change in this number. 



180 PERILS. — THE CITY. ' 

The city has become a serious menace to our civiliza- 
tion, because in it, excepting Mormonism, each of the 
dangers we have discussed, is enhanced, and all are focal- 
ized. It has a peculiar attraction for the immigrant. 
Our fifty principal cities in 1880 contained 39.3 per cent. 
of our entire German population, and 45.8 per cent, of 
the Irish. Our ten larger cities at that time contained 
only nine per cent, of the entire population, but 23 per 
cent, of the foreign. While a little less than one-third of 
the population of the United States was foreign by birth 
or parentage, sixty-two per cent, of the population of 
Cincinnati was foreign, eighty-three per cent, of Cleve- 
land, sixty -three per cent, of Boston, ^ eighty per cent, of 
New York, and ninety-one per cent, of Chicago.^ A cen- 



1 The State Census, taken in 1885 showed 67 per cent. 

2 "Foreign by birth or parentage" includes those, only one of whose 
parents was foreign. Their number is comparatively small and even less 
important than they might seem, because in a large proportion of instances 
the native parent was of foreign parentage. 

The Tenth Census gives the number of persons, foreign-born, in each of the 
fifty principal cities, but does not give the native-born population of foreign 
parentage. We have, however, tolerable satisfactory data for computing 
it. The parentage of the populations of twenty-eight states, seven terri- 
tories and the District of Columbia was tallied according to a highly compli- 
cated form in order to secure the desired ratios. On this basis the Census 
Office made an elaborate estimate of those who were foreign by birth or par- 
entage in the whole country and placed the number at 14,955,943. The whole 
number of the foreign-born was ascertained to be 6,679,943. The former 
number contains the latter 2.238 times; that is, the foreign-born population 
multiplied by 2.238 gives the population foreign by birth or parentage. It 
should be observed, however, that this ratio varies in different states, due 
doubtless to the preponderance of different races in different sections of the 
country. For instance, in Massachusetts those of foreign parentage were 
in 1880 almost exactly twice as many as those of foreign birth. Accordingly 
for any city in that state we miiltiply the number of foreign-born by two, 
which gives the total of the foreign-born and the native-born of foreign par- 
entage, provided the ratio between the two is the same in the cities as in the 
whole state, which must be assumed as long as there is no evidence to the 
contrary. In Wisconsin, the Census showed that those of foreign parent- 
age were 2.34 times the number of the foreign-born, while in Missouri the 
ratio was 2.63 to one. 

Accordingly, in order to estimate the number of those foreign by birth or 
parentage in a given city in any one of the thirty-five states and territories 
in which the above tally was made, we multiply the number of the foreign 
born in that city by the number which the census showed to be the ratio 



PERILS. — THE CITY. 181 

sus of Massachusetts, taken in 1885, showed that in 65 
towns and cities of the state 65.1 per cent, of the popula- 
tion was foreign by birth or parentage. 

Because our cities are so largely foreign, Romanism 
finds in them its chief strength. 

For the same reason the saloon, together with the 
intemperance and the liquor power which it represents, 
is multiplied in the city. East of the Mississippi there 
was, in 1880, one saloon to every 438 of the population ; 
in Boston, one to every 329 : in Cleveland, one to every 
192 ; in Chicago, one to every 179 ; in New York, one to 
every 171; in Cincinnati, one to every 124. Of course 
the demoralizing and pauperizing power of the saloons 
and their debauching influence in politics increase with 
their numerical strength. 

It is the city where wealth is massed ; and here are the 
tangible evidences of it piled many stories high. Here 
the sway of Mammon is widest, and his worship the 
most constant and eager. Here are luxuries gathered — 
everything that dazzles the eye, or tempts the appetite ; 
here is the most extravagant expenditure. Here, also, 
is the congestion of wealth the severest. Dives and 
Lazarus are brought face to face; here, in sharp con- 
trast, are the ennui of surfeit and the desperation of 
starvation. The rich are richer, and the poor are poorer, 
in the city than elsewhere; and, as a rule, the greater 



between those of foreign parentage and those of foreign birth in the state in 
which the city is located. If the city is in a state in which the tally was not 
made, as for instance, Pennsylvania, Ohio or Illinois, the best we can do is to 
multiply by the number which is the average for the whole country, viz., 
2.238. 

We hear it objected that one does not see in our cities any such proportion 
of foreigners as is indicated by the above figures. It should be remembered 
that of the population foreign by birth or parentage, five-ninths were born 
in the United States ; and at least one quarter of the foreign-born came to 
this country in childhood, so that six-ninths or two-thirds of this population 
though it remains largely foreign in ideas, becomes thoroughly American- 
ized in speech and appearance. 

Accordingly if twenty-one per cent, of the population of Boston appear 
foreign, we must not be surprised to learn that sixty- three per cent, are for- 
eign by birth or parentage. « 



182 PERILS.— THE CITY. 

the city, the greater are the riches of the rich and the 
poverty of the poor. Not only does the proportion of the 
poor increase with the growth of the city, but their con- 
dition becomes more wretched. The poor of a city of 
8,000 inhabitants are well off compared with many in 
New York ; and there are hardly such depths of woe, such 
utter and heart-wringing wretchedness in New York as 
in London. Read in "The Bitter Cry of Outcast 
London," a prophecy of what will some day be seen in 
American cities, provided existing tendencies continue : 
' ' Few who will read these pages have any conception of 
what these pestilential human rookeries are, where tens 
of thousands are crowded together amidst horrors which 
call to mind what we have heard of the middle passage 
of the slave-ship. To get into them you have to pene- 
trate courts reeking with poisonous and malodorous 
gases, arising from accumulations of sewage and refuse 
scattered in all directions, and often flowing beneath 
your feet ; courts, many of them which the sun never 
penetrates, which are never visited by a breath of fresh 
air. You have to ascend rotten staircases, grope your 
way along dark and filthy passages swarming with 
vermin. Then, if you are not driven back by the intol- 
erable stench, you may gain admittance to the dens in 
which these thousands of beings herd together. Eight 
feet square! That is about the average size of very 
many of these rooms. Walls and ceiling are black with 
the accretions of filth which have gathered upon them 
through long years of neglect. It is exuding through 
cracks in the boards; it is everywhere. . . . Every 
room in these rotten and reeking tenements houses a 
family, often two. In one cellar, a sanitary inspector 
reports finding a father, mother, three children, and 
four pigs. . . . Here are seven people living in one 
imderground kitchen, and a little dead child lying in 
the same room. Elsewhere is a poor widow, her three 
children, and a child who had been dead thirteen days. ^ 

^ The investigations here reported Vere made in the summer. 



i»ERILS.— THE OlTlf. 183 

Her husband, who was a cabman, had shortly before 
committed suicide. ... In another apartment, nine 
brothers and sisters, from twenty-nine years of age 
downward, Uve, eat, and sleep together. Here is a 
mother who turns her children into the street in the 
early evening, because she lets her room for immoral 
purposes until long after midnight, when the poor little 
wretches creep back again, if they have not found some 
miserable shelter elsewhere. Where there are beds, 
they are simply heaps of dirty rags, shavings, or straw ; 
but for the most part these miserable beings find rest 
only upon the filthy boards. . . . There are men 
and women who lie and die, day by day, in their 
wretched single room, sharing all the family trouble, 
enduring the hunger and the cold, and waiting, without 
hope, without a single ray of comfort, until God curtains 
their staring eyes with the merciful film of death. "^ 
Says the writer : " So far from making the most of our 
facts for the purpose of appealing to emotion, we have 
been compelled to tone down everything, and wholly to 
omit what most needs to be known, or the ears and eyes 
of our readers would have been insufferably outraged. 
Indeed, no respectable printer would print, and certainly 
no decent family would admit, even the driest statement 
of the horrors and infamies discovered in one brief visit- 
ation from house to house." Such are the conditions 
under which many tens of thousands live in London. 
So much space is given to this picture, only because 
London is a future New York, or Brooklyn, or Chicago. 
It gives a very dim impression of what may exist in a 
great city side by side with enormous wealth. Is it 
strange that such conditions arouse a blind and bitter 
hatred of our social system? 

Socialism centers in the city, and the materials of its 
growth are multiplied with the growth of the city. 
Here is heaped the social dynamite ; here roughs, gam- 
blers, thieves, robbers, lawless and desperate men of all 

* The Bitter Cry of Outcast London, pp. 3, 4, 10. 



184 PERILS. — THE CITY. 

sorts, congregate; men who are ready on any pretext 
to raise riots for the purpose of destruction and plunder ; 
here gather foreigners and wage-workers who are espe- 
cially susceptible to socialist arguments ; here skepticism 
and irreligion abound; here inequality is the greatest 
and most obvious, and the contrast between opulence 
and penury the most striking; here is suffering the 
sorest. As the greatest wickedness in the world is to be 
found not among the cannibals of some far-off coast, but 
in Christian lands where the light of truth is diffused 
and rejected, so the utmost depth of wretchedness exists 
not among savages who have few wants, but in great cities, 
where, in the presence of plenty and of every luxury 
men starve. Let a man become the owner of a home, and 
he is much less susceptible to socialistic propagandism. 
But real estate is so high in the city that it is almost im- 
possible for a wage-worker to become a householder. In 
1888 the Health Department of New York made a census 
which revealed the fact that there were then in the city 
32,390 tenement houses,^ occupied by 237,972 families, and 
1,093,701 souls. Investigation in 1890 showed that the 
tenement houses had increased in two years about 5,000. 
If there were an average of 33.76 to each house, as in 
1888, the tenement house population in 1890 was nearly 
1,260,000. The law in New York requires a juror to be 
owner of real or personal property valued at not less than 
two hundred and fifty dollars; and this, the Commis- 
sioner says, relieves seventy thousand of the registered 
voters of New York Citj^ from jury duty. Let us re- 
member that those seventy thousand voters represent a 
population of two hundred and eighty thousand, or fifty- 
six thousand families, not one of which has property to 
the value of two hundred and fifty dollars. "During 
the past three years, 220,976 persons in New York have 
asked for outside aid in one form or another." ^ Said a 

^ In New York under the law of 1887, a tenement house is one occupied by 
three or more families, living separately. The above census did not include 
the better class of apartment houses. 

2 Mrs. J. S. Lowell, in The Christian Union, March 26, 1885. 



PERILS. — THE CITY. 185 

New York Supreme Judge, a few years ago : ' ' There is a 
large class — I was about to say a majority — of the popu- 
lation of New York and Brooklyn, who just live, and to 
whom the rearing of two or more children means inevit- 
ably a boy for the penitentiary, and a girl for the 
brothel." ^ " When an English Judge tells us, as Mr. Jus- 
tice Wills did the other day, that there were any num- 
ber of parents who would kill their children for a few 
pounds' insurance money, we can form some idea of the 
horrors of the existence into which many of the children 
of this highly favored land are ushered at their birth. "'-^ 
Under such conditions smolder the volcanic fires of a 
deep discontent. 

We have seen how the dangerous elements of our civ- 
ilization are each multiplied and all concentered in the 
city. Do we find there the conservative forces of society 
equally numerous and strong? Here are the tainted 
spots in the body-politic; where is the salt? In 1890 
there was in the United States one Protestant church 
organization to every 438 of the population. Including 
all Protestant churches, together with missions, there 
was in Boston one church to every 1778 of the popula- 
tion, and in St. Louis, one to 2662; not including mis- 
sions, there was in Cincinnati one Protestant church to 
every 2195 ; in Buffalo, one to 2650 ; in Chicago, one to 
3601. The average city church is larger than the aver- 
age country church, but allowing for this fact we may 
say that the city, where the forces of evil are massed, 
and where the need of Christian influence is peculiarly 
great, is from one-half to one-quarter as well supplied 
with churches as the nation at large. And church ac- 
commodations in the city are growing more inadequate 
every year. Including all Protestant churches, Chicago 
had in 1836 one church to every 1042 of the population ; 
in 1851, one to every 1577; in 1860, one to 1820; in 1870, 
one to 2433 ; in 1880, one to 3062 ; and in 1890, one to 3601. 



1 Henry George's Social Problems, p. 98. 
3 In Darkest England, p. 65. 



186 PERILS. — THE CITY. 

Brooklyn had in 1840 one Evangelical church to 1575 
souls ; in 1850, one to 1760 ; in 1860, one to 2035 ; in 1870, one 
to 2085 ; in 1880, one to 2673 ; in 1890, one to 2997. In New 
York City there was in 1840 one Evangelical church to 
every 2071 of the population; in 1850, one to 2442; in 
1860, one to 2777; in 1870, one to 2480; in 1880, one to 
3048 ; in 1890, according to the government census, one 
to 3544, and according to the police census, one to 4006. 
That is, if we accept the latter enumeration, New York 
had in round numbers, one Evangelical church in 1840 to 
2000 people; in 1880, one to 3000; and in 1890, one to 
4000. These three cities seem to be exceptional only in 
degree. So far as I have made investigations, there is a 
general tendency, with variations, in the growth of 
urban population to outrun church provision. It is true 
that church buildings are larger now than they used to 
be, but after recognizing this fact, it is evident that 
church provision is becoming more and more inadequate 
to the needs of the city. 

In Chicago, " There is a certain district of which a care- 
ful examination has been made; and in that district, 
out of a population of 50,000, there are 20,000 under 
twenty years of age, and there are Sunday-school accom- 
modations for less than 2,000; that is, over 18,000 of the 
children and youth are compelled to go without the gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ, because the Christian churches are 
asleep. Mr. Gates says : ' What wonder that the police 
arrested last year 7,200 boys and girls for various petty 
crimes? The devil cares for them. There are 261 saloons 
and dago shops, three theaters and other vile places, and 
the Christian church offers Sunday-school accommodation 
to only 2,000 ! '' ^ The writer has found similar destitution 
in the large cities of Ohio. And the statistics given 
above indicate that in the large cities generally, it is com- 
mon to find extensive districts nearly or quite destitute 
of the gospel. In the Fourth and Seventh wards of 
New York City there are 70,000 people, and seven Protes- 

* Dr. H. A. Schauffler's address at Saratoga, June, 1884. 



PERILS. — THE CITY. 187 

tant churches and chapels, or one place of worship to 
every 10,000 of the population. In the Tenth ward there 
is a population of 47,000 and two churches and chapels.^ 
South of Fourteenth Street there was in 1880 a popula- 
tion of 541,726, for whom there were 109 Protestant 
churches and missions, or about one to every 5000 souls. 
In 1890, according to the police census, there was in the 
same quarter a population of 596,878, an increase of 
50,000 people, while of churches and missions there was 
an increase of one. Indeed, the Christian force is not so 
large now as it was ten or even twenty years ago, because 
churches have moved out and been replaced by missions. 
It was stated by Dr, Schaufiler in 1888 ^ that during the 
preceding twenty years nearly 200,000 people had moved 
in below Fourteenth Street, and seventeen Protestant 
churches had moved out. One Jewish synagogue and 
two Roman Catholic churches had been added. So that 
counting churches of every kind, there were fourteen less 
than there were twenty years before, notwithstanding 
the great increase of population. 

If moral and religious influences are peculiarly weak 
at the point where our social explosives are gathered, 
what of city government? Are its strength and purity 
so exceptional as to insure the effective control of these 
dangerous elements? In the light of notorious facts, 
the question sounds satirical. It is commonly acknowl- 
edged that the government of large cities in the United 
States is a failure. "In all the great American cities 
there is to-day as clearly defined a ruling class as in the 
most aristocratic countries in the world. Its members 
carry wards in their pockets, make up the slates for 
nominating conventions, distribute offices as they bar- 
gain together, and — though they toil not, neither do 
they spin — wear the best of raiment and spend money 
lavishly. They are men of power, whose favor the am- 
bitious must court, and whose vengeance he must avoid. 



1 Dr. A. F. Schauffler in Chickering Hall Conference, 1888. 
8 Ibid. 



188 PERILS. — THE CITY. 

Who are these men? The wise, the good, the learned- 
men who have earned the confidence of tlieir fellow- 
citizens by the purity of their lives, the splendor of their 
talents, their probity in public trusts, their deep study 
of the problems of government? No ; they are gamblers, 
saloon-keepers, pugilists, or worse, who have made a 
trade of controlling votes and of buying and selling 
offices and official acts-''^ It has come to this, that hold- 
ing a municipal office in a large city almost impeaches a 
man's character. Known integrity and competency 
hopelessly incapacitate a man for any office in the gift 
of a city rabble. In a certain western city, the admin- 
istration of the mayor had convinced good citizens that 
he gave constant aid and comfort to gamblers, thieves, 
saloon-keepers and all the worst elements of society. 
He became a candidate for a second term. The promi- 
nent men and press of both parties and the ministry of 
all denominations united in a Citizens' League to defeat 
him ; but he was triumphantly returned to office by the 
"lewd fellows of the baser sort." And again, after a 
desperate struggle on the part of the better elements to 
defeat him, he was re-elected to a third term of office. 

Popular government in the city is degenerating into 
government by a "boss." During his visit to this 
country, Herbert Spencer said : ' ' You retain the forms 
of freedom ; but so far as I can gather, there has been a 
considerable loss of the substance. It is true that those 
who rule you do not do it by means of retainers armed 
with swords ; but they do it through regiments of men 
armed with voting papers, who obey the word of com- 
mand as loyally as did the dependents of the old feudal 
nobles, and who thus enable their leaders to override the 

^ Progress and Poverty, p. 382. The twenty-eight leaders of Tam- 
many," which organization governs New York City, are thus classified by 
The Evening Post: Twenty-eight professional politicians; one convicted 
murderer; one tried for murder and acquitted; one indicted for felonious 
assault; one indicted for bribery; four professional gamblers; five gam- 
bling-house or " dive " keepers; four liquor-dealers; five former liquor- 
dealers; three sons of liquor-dealers; three former pugilists; four former 
"toughs; " six members of the Tweed gang; and seventeen office holders. 



PERILS. — THE CITY. 189 

general will, and make the community submit to their 
exactions as effectually as their prototypes of old. Mani- 
festly those who framed your Constitution never dreamed 
that twenty thousand citizens would go to the polls led 
by a ' boss.' " 

As a rule, our largest cities are the worst governed. 
It is natural, therefore, to infer that, as our cities grow 
larger and more dangerous, the government will be- 
come more corrupt, and control will pass more com- 
pletely into the hands of those who themselves most 
need to be controlled. If we would appreciate the sig- 
nificance of these facts and tendencies, we must bear 
in mind that the disproportionate growth of the city 
is undoubtedly to continue, and the number of great 
cities to be largely increased. The extraordinary growth 
of urban population during this century has not been 
at all peculiar to the United States. It is a character- 
istic of nineteenth century civilization. And this growth 
of the city is taking place not only in England and Ger- 
many, where the increase of population is rapid, but 
also in France, where population is practically station- 
ary, and even in Ireland where it is declining. This 
strong tendency toward the city is the result chiefly of 
agricultural machinery, of manufactures and railway 
communication, and their influence will, of course, 
continue. If the growth of the city in the United States 
has been so rapid during this century, while many mil- 
lions of acres were being settled, what may be expected 
when the settlement of the West has been completed? 
The rise in the value of land, when once the agricultural 
lands have all been occupied and population has become 
dense, will stimulate yet more the growth of the city; 
for the man of small means will be unable to command 
a farm, and the town will become his only alternative. 
When the public lands are all taken, immigration, 
though it will be considerably restricted thereby, 11 
continue, and will crowd the cities more and e. 

This country will undoubtedly have a population of 
several hundred millions, for the simple reason that it 



190 PEKILS. — THE CITY. 

is capable of sustaining that number. And it looks jas 
if the larger proportion of it would be urban. There 
can be no indefinite increase of our agricultural popula- 
tion. Its growth must needs be slow after the farms 
are all taken, and it is necessarily limited ; but the cities 
may go on doubling and doubling again. Even if the 
growth of population should be very greatly and unex- 
pectedly retarded, there are many noAv living who will 
see 150,000,000 inhabitants in the United States, and 
more than a quarter of that number living in cities of 
8,000 and upward. And the city of the future will be 
more crowded than that of to-day, because the elevator 
makes it possible to build, as it were, one city above 
another. Thus is our civilization multiplying and focal- 
izing the elements of anarchy and destruction. Nearly 
forty years ago De Tocqueville wrote: " I. look upon the 
size of certain American cities, and especially upon the 
nature of their population, as a real danger which 
threatens the security of the democratic republics of the 
New World." That danger grows more real and immi- 
nent every year. 

And this peril, like the others which have been dis- 
cussed, peculiarly threatens the West. The time will 
doubtless come when a majority of the great cities of 
the country will be west of the Mississippi. This will 
result naturally from the greater eventual population of 
the West ; but, in addition to this fact, what has been 
pointed out must not be forgotten, that agriculture will 
occupy a much smaller place relatively in the industries 
of the West than in those of the East, because a much 
smaller proportion of the land is arable. The vast region 
of the Rocky Mountains will be inhabited chiefly by a 
mining and manufacturing population, and such popula- 
tions live in cities. 

1. In gathering up the results of the foregoing discus- 
sion of these several perils, it should be remarked that 
to preserve republican institutions requires a higher 
average intelligence and virtue among large populations 
than among small. The government of 5,000,000 people 



PERILS. — THE CITY. 191 

was a simple thing compared with the government of 
50,000,000; and the government of 50,000,000 is a simple 
thing compared with that of 500,000,000. There are 
many men who can conduct a small business success- 
fully, who are utterly incapable of managing large inter- 
ests. In the latter there are multiplied relations whose 
harmony must be preserved. A mistake is farther 
reaching. It has, as it were, a longer leverage. This is 
equally true of the business of government. The man 
of only average ability and intelligence discharges 
creditably the duties of mayor in his little town ; but he 
would fail utterly at the head of the state or the nation. 
If the people are to govern, they must grow more intelli- 
gent as the population and the complications of govern- 
ment increase. And a higher morality is even more 
essential. As civilization increases, as society becomes 
more complex, as labor-saving machinery is multiplied 
and the division of labor becomes more minute, the in- 
dividual becomes more fractional and dependent. Every 
savage possesses all the knowledge of his tribe. Throw 
him upon his own resources, and he is self-sufficient. A 
civilized man in like circumstances would perish. The 
savage is independent. Civilize him, and he becomes 
dependent; the more civilized, the more dependent. 
And, as men become more dependent on each other, 
they should be able to rely more implicitly on each other. 
More complicated and multiplied relations require a 
more delicate conscience and a stronger sense of justice. 
And any failure in character or conduct under such 
conditions is farther reaching and more disastrous in its 
results. 

Is our progress in morals and intelligence at all com- 
parable to the growth of population ? The nation's 
illiteracy has not been discussed, because it is not one of 
the perils which peculiarly threaten the West ; but any 
one who would calculate our political horoscope must 
allow it great influence in connection with the baleful 
stars which are in the ascendant. But the danger which 
arises from the corruption of popular morals is much 



192 PERILS. — THE CITY. 

greater. The republics of Greece and Eome, and, if I 
mistake not, all the republics that have ever lived and 
died, were more intelligent at the end than at the begin- 
ning ; but growing intelligence could not compensate de- 
caying morals. What, then, is our moral progress? 
Are popular morals as sound as they were twenty years 
ago? There is, perhaps, no better index of general 
morality than Sabbath observance; and everybody 
knows there has been a great increase of Sabbath dese- 
cration in twenty years. We have seen that we are now 
using as a beverage 29 per cent, more of alcohol per caput 
than we were fifty years ago. Says Dr. S. W. Dike : ^ 
" It is safe to say that divorce has been doubled, in pro- 
portion to marriages or population, in most of the North- 
ern States within thirty years. Present figures indicate 
a still greater increase." And President Woolsey, sj^eak- 
ing of the United States, said in 1883 1^ " On the whole, 
there can be little, if any question, that the ratio of di- 
vorces to marriages or to population exceeds that of any 
country in the Christian world." While the population 
increased thirty per cent, from 1870 to 1880, the number 
of criminals in the United States increased 82.33 per 
cent. It looks very much as if existing tendencies were 
in the direction of the dead-line of vice. Excepting 
Mormonism, all the perils which have been discussed 
seem to be increasing more rapidly than the population. 
Are popular morals likely to improve under their in- 
creasing influencef 

2. The fundamental idea of popular government is the 
distribution of power. It has been the struggle of liberty 
for ages to wrest power from the hands of one or the 
few, and lodge it in the hands of the many. We have 
seen, in the foregoing discussion, that centralized power 
is rapidly growing. The "boss" makes his bargain, 
and sells his ten thousand or fifty thousand voters as if 
they were so many cattle. Centralized wealth is cen- 
tralized power ; and the capitalist and corporation find 

^Princeton Review, March, 1884, p. 170. 

'^ North American Review, April, 1883, p. 314. 



PERILS. — THE CITY. 193 

many ways to control votes. The liquor power controls 
thousands of votes in every considerable city. The pres- 
ident of the Mormon Church casts, say, sixty thousand 
votes. The Jesuits, it is said, are all under the command 
of one man in Washington. The Roman Catholic vote is 
more or less perfectly controlled by the priests. That 
means that the Pope can dictate some hundreds of thou- 
sands of votes in the United States. Is ther^ anything 
unrepublican in all this? And we must remember that, 
if present tendencies continue, these figures will be 
greatly multiplied in the future. And not only is this 
immense power lodged in the hand of one man, which in 
itself is perilous, but it is wielded without the slightest 
reference to any policy or principle of government, 
solely in the interests of a church or a business, or for 
personal ends. 

The result of a national election may depend on a 
single state ; the vote of that state may depend on a 
single city ; the vote of that city may depend on a 
" boss, " or a capitalist, or a corporation; or the election 
may be decided, and the policy of the government may 
be reversed, by the socialist, or liquor, or Roman Catho- 
lic or immigrant vote. 

It matters not by what name we call the man who 
wields this centralized power — whether king, czar, pope, 
president, capitalist, or boss. Just so far as it is absolute 
and irresponsible, it is dangerous. 

3. These several dangerous elements are singularly net- 
ted together, and serve to strengthen each other. It is 
not necessary to prove that any one of them is likely to 
destroy our national life, in order to show that it is imper- 
iled. A man may die of wounds no one of which is 
fatal. No sober-minded man can look fairly at tlie facts, 
and doubt that together these perils constitute an array 
which will seriously endanger our free institutions, if the 
tendencies which have been pointed out continue; and 
especially is this true in view of the fact that these perils 
peculiarly confront the West, where our defense is weak- 
est. 



194 PERILS. — THE CITY. 

These dangerous elements are now working, and will 
continue to work, incalculable harm and loss — moral, 
intellectual, social, pecuniary. But the supreme peril, 
which will certainly come unless there is found for exist- 
ing tendencies some effectual check, and must probably 
be faced by many now living, will arise, when, the condi- 
tions having been fully prepared, some great industrial 
or other crisis precipitates an open struggle between the 
destructive and the conservative elements of society. 
As civilization advances, and society becomes more 
highly organized, commercial transactions will be more 
complex and immense. As a result, all business relations 
and industries will be more sensitive. Commercial dis^ 
tress in any great business center will the more surely 
create wide-spread disaster. Under such conditions, 
industrial paralysis is likely to occur from time to time, 
more general and more prostrating than any heretofore 
known. When such a commercial crisis has closed fac- 
tories by the ten thousand, and wage- workers have been 
thrown out of employment by the million; when the 
public lands, which hitherto at such times have afforded 
relief, are all exhausted ; when our urban population has 
been multiplied several fold, and our Cincinnatis have 
become Chicagos, our Chicagos New Yorks, and our 
New Yorks Londons; when class antipathies are deep- 
ened; when socialistic organizations, armed and drilled, 
are in every city, and the ignorant and vicious power of 
crowded populations has fully found itself; when the 
corruption of city governments is grown apace; when 
crops fail, or some gigantic "corner" doubles the price 
of bread; with starvation in the home; with idle work- 
men gathered, sullen and desperate, in the saloons ; with 
unprotected wealth at hand ; with the tremendous forces 
of chemistry within easy reach ; then, with the opportu^ 
nity, the means, the Jit agents, the motive, the tem^ptation 
to destroy, all brought into evil conjunction, then will 
come the real test of our institutions, then will appear 
whether we are capable of self-government. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, on being asked when the 
training of a child should begin, replied : "A hundred 
years before he is born." Not only should it begin then, 
it does; for inheritance, together with that which 
necessarily accompanies it, is the great conservative 
influence which perpetuates national characteristics, and 
preserves the identity of races. In the case of nations, 
education, though it may modify the results of inherit- 
ance , is, itself, for the most part, determined by inherit- 
ance. What is the difference between North and South 
America? It is the difference between the Anglo- 
Saxon race and the Spanish race. What is the differ- 
ence between Massachusetts and Virginia? It is the 
difference between the Pilgrim and the Cavalier. 
How unlike are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New 
Orleans, Montreal, and Quebec? Religiously, morally, 
intellectually, socially, commercially, in enterprise and 
spirit, they differ to-day pretty much as their founders 
differed generations ago. It is true of the city and na- 
tion as of the herb, that its seed is in itself, after its kind. 

Communities and commonwealths, like men, have 
their childhood, which is the formative period. It is 
the first permanent settlers who impress themselves 
and their character on the future. Powerful influences 
may, in later years, produce important modifications; 
but it is early influence which is farthest reaching, and 
is generally decisive. It is easier to form than to re- 
form ; easier to mold molten iron than to file the cold cast. 

Look at a few illustrations of the above truths. On 
the Western Reserve are two adjoining townships, 



196 THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 

which were settled by men of radically different char- 
acter. The southern township was founded by a far- 
seeing and devoted home missionary. He had become 
convinced that he could do more to establish Christian 
institutions on the Reserve ' ' by one conspicuous ex- 
ample of a well organized and well Christianized town- 
ship, with all the best arrangements and appliances of 
New England civilization, than by many years of des- 
ultory effort in the way of missionary labor." The set- 
tlers were carefully selected. None but professing 
Christians were to become landholders. As soon as a 
few families had moved into the township, public wor- 
ship was commenced, and has ever since been main- 
tained without interruption. A church was organized 
under the roof of the first log cabin. At the center of 
the township, where eight roads meet, was located the 
church building, fitly representing the central place oc- 
cupied by the service of God in the life of the colony. 
Soon followed the school house and the public library. 
And there, in the midst of the unconquered forest, only 
eight years after the first white settlement, the people, 
mindful of higher education, and true to their New 
England antecedents, planted an academy. At a very 
early period several benevolent societies were organized, 
and here was opened the first school for the deaf and 
dumb in the State of Ohio. 

The northern township was first settled by an infidel, 
who seems to have given to the community not only his 
name, but, in large measure, his character also. He 
naturally attracted men of the same sort. It is said he 
expressed the desire that there might never be a Chris- 
tian church in the township; and, though this desire 
was not gratified, the general character of the town has 
been irreligious. One of the best colleges in the West 
was founded within five miles, but I am unable to learn 
that any young man from this township has ever taken 
a college course. A few ^ have entered professional life, 

1 1 can gain definite knowledge of only seven, though it is quite likely there 
Jjave been more, 



THE iNFLUEKCtJ OF EARLY SETTLEHS. 19'? 

none of whom has gained a wi^e reputation. On the 
other hand, the southern township is widely known to- 
day for its moral and religious character, its wealth ^ 
and liberality, and for the exceptionally large number of 
young men and women it sends to colleges and semina- 
ries. It has furnished many members of the state legis- 
lature and senate. It has been fruitful of ministers and 
educators, some of whom have gained a national reputa- 
tion. From this little village of a few hundred inhabi- 
tants have gone forth men to college professorships. East 
and West, to the Supreme Bench of the state, and to the 
United States Congress. The general character of these 
two townships was fixed at the beginning of the century. 
Their founders placed a stamp upon them which abides. 

The town of Boscawen, New Hampshire, was settled 
in 1734, by a colony of Massachusetts people. Scarcely 
were they settled, when they took steps to secure "some 
suitable man and a Christian learned " to preach the gos- 
pel. The original stock was good, and the formative in- 
fluences were Christian. We now find that its collegiate 
and professional record contains more than 130 names, 
among which there are those of two missionaries, six 
journalists, twenty-one lawyers, thirty -five physicians, 
and forty-two ministers. Among the eminent men 
whom this town has produced are General John A. Dix 
and William Pitt Fessenden. 

When Northampton, Massachusetts, was settled, in 
1654, it was " way out west" on the frontier. Among 
the early settlers in the then wilderness, who shaped 
the character and history of the town, were the Aliens, 
Bartletts, Bridgmans, Clapps, Dwights, Elliotts, Haw- 
leys, Kings, Lymans, Mathers, Parsons, Stoddards, 
Strongs, Tappans, and Wrights. The town early became 
distinguished for its marked religious character and its 
educational advantages. For a century and a quarter 

1 Though the northern township had the advantage of a better soil, the 
assessed valuar.ion of real and personal property in the southern now (1885) 
exceeds that of the other by fifty-six per cent. Godliness is profitable to 
the life that now is. 



i98 THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLlfiil^. 

the entire population, save the very old and the very 
young, the sick and their attendants, were found in the 
church every Sabbath. In 1735, during the pastorate of 
Jonathan Edwards, over 600, out of a population of 
1,100, were members of the church. For seven genera- 
tions the impress given by the early settlers has re- 
mained. Their influence upon the community, and that 
of the community upon the state and the nation, may be, 
in some measure, estimated from the following record. ^ 
Among the natives and residents of the town are about 
354 college graduates, besides fifty-six graduates of other 
institutions, one hundred and fourteen ministers, eighty- 
four ministers' wives, ten missionaries, twenty-five 
judges, about one hundred and two lawyers, ninety -five 
physicians; one hundred and one educators, including 
seven college presidents and thirty professors, twenty- 
four editors, six historians, and twenty-four authors, 
among whom are George Bancroft, John Lothrop Mot- 
ley, Professor W. D. Whitney, and J. G. Holland; 
thirty-eight oflicers of state, among them two governoi's, 
two secretaries of the Commonwealth, seven senators, 
and eighteen representatives ; twenty-one army officers, 
including six colonels and two generals; twenty-eight 
officers of the United States, among them a Secretary of 
the Navy, two Foreign Ministers, a Treasurer of the 
United States, five senators, eight members of Congress, 
and one President. 

If a community produces or fails to produce good citi- 
zens and able men, the records of the founders will 
rarely fail to afford an explanation, for the influence of 
the early settlers continues operative until their descend- 
ants are displaced by some other stock. It is true the 
glory is departing from many a New England village, 
because men, alien in blood, in religion, and in civiliza- 
tion, are taking possession of homes in which were once 
reared the descendants of the Pilgrims. But the fact 
that the character of New England is undergoing im- 

1 Northampton Antiquities, by Rev. Solomon Clark. 



THE iK^iitJEKCE OE EARLY SETTLERS. 199 

portant changes is no proof that the impress now being 
given to the new communities of the West will not be 
permanent. There is no likelihood that the foreign im- 
migration now pouring in upon us is ever to be sup- 
planted by another stock. Instead, it will be reinforced 
until there is an equahzation of population, between the 
Old World and the New, then it will cease. Beyond a 
peradventure, the character, and hence the destiny, 
of the great West, for centuries to come, is now being 
determined. 

" I hear the tread of pioneers, 
Of nations yet to be ; 
The first low wash of waves, where SOOQ 
Shall roll a human sea. 

" The rudiments of empire here 
Are plastic yet, and warm; 
The chaos of a mighty world 
Is rounding into form." 

What the final form of that western world is likely to 
be, we may infer from the forces which are at work 
shaping it. How do they compare with the influences 
which molded New England institutions? The Pilgrim 
Fathers sought these shores not simply as refugees, but 
also as missionaries. " A great hope and inward zeal 
they had of laying some good foundation (or, at least, to 
make some way thereunto) for propagating and advanc- 
ing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote 
parts of the world." They came not for gold; but for 
conscience' sake and soul's sake. The early settlers of 
New England were sufficiently homogeneous to enable 
them to labor harmoniously and successfully to make 
religion, learning, liberty and law, the four corner-stones 
of their civilization. New England ideas gave form to 
the national government, and shaped the institutions of 
the Middle States; but does any one suppose they are 
dominant to-day in the great territories of the West? Is 
there no danger that an alien and materialistic civiliza- 
tion will spring up in the Eocky Mountains and beyond ? 



200 THE IHFLUEKCE OF EAULY SETTLEES. 

The population of the frontier is thoroughly hetero- 
geneous. In a town in Montana of about 7,000 inhabit- 
ants, a religious census discovered, in addition to the 
usual Protestant sects, evangelical and otherwise, 3,000 
Catholics, several members of the Greek Church, three 
Mohammedans and 360 Buddhists. In a single congre- 
gation there were representatives of fifteen states of the 
Union, scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 
the following nationalities: German, French, Italian, 
English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh, Norwegian, Swedish, 
Greek and Eussian, besides a native of Alaska. The 
West is being settled by well-nigh every variety of race, 
representing every type of religion and irrehgion— peo- 
ples different in antecedents, language, customs, habits, 
ideas and character. The one thing in which a frontier 
population agrees is the universal and unbending pur- 
pose to make money. 

We have already seen that the West is peculiarly 
exposed to the dangers of Mammonism, materialism, 
luxuriousness and the centralization of wealth; that 
conditions are exceptionally favorable to the spread of 
socialism ; that the relative power of the saloon is two 
and a half times greater in the far West than in the 
East; that Mormonism is still vigorous; that Romanism 
as compared with the population, is about three times 
as strong in the territories as in the whole United 
States ; and that into the West is pouring a large per- 
centage of our foreign immigration. These forces of 
evil, which are severely trying the established institu- 
tions of the East, are brought to bear with increased 
power upon the plastic and formative society of the 
West. It is like subjecting a child to evil influences, 
for resistance to which the full strength of mature 
years is none too great. 

We have seen (Chap. IV.) that nearly all of the per- 
ils which have been discussed are greatly enhanced 
by the presence of the foreign element. It is of the 
utmost significance that this element constitutes so 
large a proportion of the settlers who are now shaping 



THE INFLUENCE OF EAKLY SETTLEES. 201 

the future of the great commonwealths of the West. 
Those of foreign birth or extraction ^ were, in 1880, 
38.2 per cent, of the population of Washington Terri- 
tory. Of Montana, they constituted 48.8 per cent, of 
the population; of Wyoming, 50.5 per cent.; of Utah, 
51.9 per cent. ; of Idaho, 53.2 per cent. ; of Arizona, 
55.2 per cent.; of Dakota, 66.5 per cent.; of the State 
of Nebraska, 43.5 per cent.; of California 59.9 per 
cent. ; of Nevada, 63.3 per cent. ; and of Minnesota, 
71.6 per cent. Not including Alaska, New Mexico, or 
the Indian Territory, 53.9 per cent, of the population 
of the territories was, in 1880, of foreign birth or ex- 
traction. The population of New Mexico, though al- 
most wholly native, is essentially foreign — foreign in 
race, language, education (or rather the lack of it), in 
religious ideas, habits and character. It is much more 
difficult to assimilate than any of the European races. 
The same is true of the population of the Indian Ter- 
ritory. Counting these peoples, then, as foreign, 66 
per cent, of the population of the territories is of for- 
eign birth or extraction; and these territories include 
nearly 44 per cent, of all the land between the Missis- 
sippi and Alaska. If we add California, Colorado, Min- 
nesota, Nebraska, Nevada and Oregon, these states, 
together with the territories, constitute nearly two- 
thirds of all the West, and 58.9 per cent, of their in- 
habitants are of foreign extraction or birth. 

We have seen that dangerous influences are being 
brought to bear upon the new settlements of the West 
with peculiar power. Are the neutralizing and saving 
influences of the Christian religion equally strong ? 
According to Dr. Dorchester, the evangelical church 
membership of the United States in 1880, was one- 
fifth of the entire population ; but in Oregon, the same 
year, only one in eleven of the population was in some 
evangelical church; in Dakota, one in twelve; in 

* By foreign extraction is nneant natives, one or both of whose parents 
were foreign-born. See Compendium of Tenth Census, Part II, pp. 1408 
and 1409. 



^02 THE II^FLUEHCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 

Washington, one in sixteen ; in California and Colora- 
do, one in twenty; in Idaho, one in thirty-three; in 
Montana, one in thirty-six; in Nevada, one in forty- 
six ; in Wyoming, one in eighty-one ; in Utah, one in 
224; in New Mexico, one in 657; in Arizona, one in 
685. 

If , as Milton says, "Childhood shows the man as 
morning shows the day," what will be the manhood of 
the West, unless the churches of the East are speedily 
aroused to some appreciation of their opportunity and 
their obligation? 

Important changes are taking place in the East and 
South, but they do not possess the almost boundless 
significance which attaches to beginnings. East of 
the Mississippi, state constitutions and laws were 
formed long since ; society is no longer chaotic, it has 
crystallized; religion has its recognized institutions 
which are thoroughly established. A vast work remains 
to be done, both in the North and South — a work which 
sustains important relations to our national welfare ; but 
it is the West, not the South or the North, which holds 
the key to the nation's future. The center of population, 
of manufactures, of wealth, and of political power is not 
moving south but west. The Southern States will never 
have a majority of our population ; the West will. To- 
day, the constitutions and laws of many of the future 
states of our western empire are unformed. ^ Those 
great territories, as Edmund Burke once said of the 
nation, are yet "in the gristle;" society is still 
chaotic; religious, educational and political institutions 
are embryonic; but their character is being rapidly 
fashioned by the swift, impetuous forces of intense 
western life. "Know thy opportunity." 



^ Since this sentence was written, five years ago, six of the western terri- 
tories have adopted constitutions and been admitted as states. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EXHAUSTION OP THE PUBLIC LANDS. 

Thomas Carlyle once said to an American : ' ' Ye may 
boast o' yer dimocracy, or any ither 'cracy, or any kind 
o' poleetical roobish ; but the reason why yer laboring 
folk are so happy is thot ye have a vost deal o' land for 
a verrafew people.'''' Carlyle was not the man to take an 
unprejudiced view of republican institutions ; but he was 
not mistaken in finding great significance in the fact 
that heretofore our land has been vastly greater than its 
population. The rapid accumulation of our wealth, our 
comparative immunity from the consequences of un- 
scientific legislation, our financial elasticity, our high 
wages, the general welfare and contentment of the peo- 
ple hitherto have all been due, in very large measure, to 
an abundance of cheap land. When the supply is ex- 
hausted, we shall enter upon a new era, and shall more 
rapidly approximate European conditions of life. The 
gravity of the change was clearly foreseen by Lord Mac- 
aulay, and expressed in his well-known letter to Hon. H. 
S. Randall, in 1857— a letter which General Garfield said 
startled him " like an alarm bell in the night." " Your 
fate," says Macaulay, " I beheve to be certain, though it 
is deferred by a physical cause. As long as you have a 
boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your 
laboring population will be far more at ease than the la- 
boring population of the Old World. . . . But the time 
will come when New England will be as thickly peopled 
as Old England. Wages will be as low, and will fluctu- 
ate as much with you as with us. You will have your 
Manchesters and Birminghams. And in those Manches- 
ters and Birminghams, hundreds of thousands of artisans 



204 THE EXHAUSTIOK OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 

will assuredly be some time out of work. Then your in- 
stitutions will be fairly brought to the test. . . . Through 
such seasons the United States will have to pass in the 
course of the next century, if not of this. I wish you a 
good deliverance. But my reason and my wishes are at 
war, and I cannot help foreboding the worst." 

What is the extent of these public lands whose occu- 
pation means so much? The public domain west of the 
Mississippi, not including Alaska, is estimated to have 
been, in 1880, 880,787,746 acres. ^ This includes land ne- 
cessary to fill railroad grants, estimated at 110,000,000 
acres, also private land-claims estimated at 80,000,000 
acres, together with military and Indian reservations es- 
timated at 157,356,952 acres. Supposing all of the mili- 
tary and Indian reservations to revert to the public 
domain save 57,000,000 acres, there remained of the pub- 
lic lands west of the Mississippi, in 1880, yet to be dis- 
posed of, about 633,787,746 acres. This seems an almost 
inexhaustible supply, but we must remember the magni- 
tude of the demand. The following table shows how 
much land the Government has disposed of each year 
since 1880. 

ACRES. 

In 1881 10,893,390 

.. jgg2 14,309,166 

.. jggg 19,430,032 

.. 1884 ...-■■ 27,531,170 

.. jggg 20,995,515 

» .Qgg 22,124,563 

,. jgg„ 25,858,038 

.. iggg ■■■■■;■■;;;;;■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ■ 30,116,684 

Here is a total in eight years, of 171,258,565 acres, a 
million more than are contained in the state of Texas, or 
more than twice the area of Great Britain and Ireland, 
leaving in the hands of the government in 1889, about 
462,529,181 acres. If the rate since 1880 should be sus- 
tained, all of the public lands west of the Mississippi 
would be exhausted in twenty years. It must not be 



1 Spaulding on Public Lands, pp. 6, 7. 



THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 205 

forgotten that these figures include the great mouiltain 
ranges, and all the barren lands. Only a comparatively 
small portion is arable. The farming lands of the West 
therefore, will all be taken before the close of this cen- 
tury. And under private ownership they will naturally 
appreciate in value with the increase of population. 
Senator Wade, of Ohio, predicted, in the United States 
Senate, some twenty-five years ago, that, by 1900, every 
acre of good agricultural land in the Union would be 
worth at least fifty dollars. This is very much of an 
over-estimate, but it is nevertheless certain that our 
wide domain will soon cease to palliate popular discon- 
tent, because it will soon be beyond the reach of the poor. 
But the settlement of the public lands has a further 
and even deeper significance. The first permanent 
settlers, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, im- 
press their character on the community and common- 
wealth for generations and centuries; and this abiding 
stamp is to be given to the great West in the course of 
the next fifteen or twenty years. True, the land is not 
settled as rapidly as it is disposed of by the govern- 
ment. Many acres have passed into the hands of 
wealthy syndicates or individual capitalists, and are 
held by them for a rise in value; but this can delay 
actual settlement for a short time only, and does not 
modify the general statement that the great West is to 
be settled by this generation. Robert Giffen, President 
of the London Statistical Society, in an address on 
"World Crowding,"^ after following several lines of 
reasoning to the same conclusion, says : ' ' Whatever 
way we may look at the matter, then, it seems certain 
that, in twenty-five years' time, and probably before 
that date, the limitation of area in the United States 
will be felt. There will be no longer vast tracts of 
virgin land for the settler. The whole available area 
will be peopled agriculturally, as the Eastern States 
are now peopled." Suppose the entire region west of 

1 Topics of the Times, 1883. Vol. I., No. 1 p. 36. 



206 THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LAKDS. 

the Mississippi— not excepting bald mountains and alka- 
line deserts— were divided into townships six miles 
square. From 1870 to 1880 the trans-Mississippi popula- 
tion increased a little more than sixty-one per cent.^ 
The Census of 1890 shows in this region a population of 
16,419,459— an increase in ten years of 45.8 per cent. 
Even if the ratio of increase during the next ten years 
should fall to thirty-three per cent., which is unlikely, 
there would be in 1900 a population of nearly 22,000,000 
—sufficient, if it were evenly distributed, to place 384 
souls in every township west of the great river. The 
natural distribution of such a population would mani- 
festly result in the settlement of about all the habitable 
regions. Consider the location of the unoccupied land. 
It is not a vast island, like Australia, separated by 
thousands of miles from its sources of population. It 
lies close to one of the greatest peoples on the earth ; and 
not on our north or south, but on our west, which is 
important, because great migrations move along lines of 
latitude. Moreover, this great territory is gridironed 
with transcontinental railways. Every circumstance 
favors its rapid occupation. 

We must note, also, the order of settlement. In the 
Middle States the farms were first taken, then the town 
sprung up to supply their wants, and at length the 
railway connected it with the world; but in the West 
the order is reversed — first the railroad, then the town, 
then the farms. Settlement is, consequently, much 
more rapid, and the city stamps the country, instead of 
the country's stamping the city. It is the cities and 
towns which will frame state constitutions, make laws, 
create public opinion, establish social usages, and fix 
standards of morals in the West. The character of the 
West will, therefore, be substantially determined some 
time before the land is all occupied. 



1 During the same period the average per cent, of increase of population 
in all the states of the Union was 29 — in the territories, 77. Idaho increased 
117 per cent., Wyoming, 127, Washington, 213, Arizona, 318, Dakota, 858. 



THE EXHAUSTIOi^T OF THE PUBLIC LAN^DS. 207 

In 1880, fifty-three per cent, of our national domain 
(not including Alaska) contained only six per cent, of 
our population. That is, one-half of our territory was, 
for the most part, uninhabited. The character of this 
vast region, equal in area to Great Britain, France, 
Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Norway and Sweden, 
together with a dozen of the smaller European states, 
is being determined during the last twenty years of the 
century. Suppose all of Western Europe were prac- 
tically uninhabited, that to-day the pioneer were pitch- 
ing his tent by the Thames and Seine, and building 
his log cabin on the banks of the Tiber. He takes with 
him not the rude implements of centuries ago, but the 
locomotive, the telegraph, the steam-press, and all the 
swift appliances of modern civilization. Suppose the 
countries named above were all to be settled in twenty 
years; that, instead of the slow evolutions of many 
centuries, their political, social, religious, and educa- 
tional institutions were to be determined by one gen- 
eration ; that from this one generation were to spring a 
civilization, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, 
full-grown and fully equipped. What a period in the 
world's history it would be, unparalleled and tremen- 
dous! Yet such a Europe is being created by this 
generation west of the Mississippi. And within the 
bosom of these few years is folded not only the future 
of the mighty West, but the nation's destiny : for, as 
we have seen, the West is to dominate the East. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE. ^ 

Every race which has deeply impressed itself on the 
human family has been the representative of some great 
idea— one or more— which has given direction to the na- 
tion's life and form to its civilization. Among the 
Egyptians this seminal idea was life, among the 
Persians it was light, among the Hebrews it was 
purity, among the Greeks it was beauty, among the 
Romans it was law. The Anglo-Saxon is the repre- 
sentative of two great ideas, which are closely related. 
One of them is that of civil liberty. Nearly all of the 
civil liberty of the world is enjoyed by Anglo-Saxons: 
the English, the British colonists, and the people of the 
United States. To some, like the Swiss, it is permitted 
by the sufferance of their neighbors; others, like the 
French, have experimented with it; but, in modern 
times, the peoples whose love of liberty has won it, and 
whose genius for self-government has preserved it, have 
been Anglo-Saxons. The noblest races have always 
been lovers of liberty. The love ran strong in early 
German blood, and has profoundly influenced the insti- 
tutions of all the branches of the great German family ; 
but it was left for the Anglo-Saxon branch fully to rec- 
ognize the right of the individual to himself, and form- 
ally to declare it the foundation stone of government. 

The other great idea of which the Anglo-Saxon is the 
exponent is that of a pure spiritual Christianity. It 

^ It is only just to say that the substance of this chapter was given to the 
public as a lecture some three years before the appearance of Prof. Fiske's 
Manifest Destiny, in Harper''s Magazine, for March, 1885, whigh contains 
some of the same ideas. 



THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 209 

was no accident that the great reformation of the six- 
teenth century originated among a Teutonic, rather than 
a Latin people. It was the fire of Kberty burning in the 
Saxon heart that flamed up against the absolutism of the 
Pope. Speaking roughly, the peoples of Europe which 
are Celtic are Roman Catholic, and those which are Teu- 
tonic are Protestant ; and where the Teutonic race was 
purest, there Protestantism spread with the greatest rapid- 
ity. But, with beautiful exceptions, Protestantism on the 
continent has degenerated into mere formalism. By con- 
firmation at a certain age, the state churches are filled 
with members who generally know nothing of a personal 
spiritual experience. In obedience to a military order, 
a regiment of G-erman soldiers files into church and par- 
takes of the sacrament, just as it would shoulder arms 
or obey any other word of command. It is said that, in 
Berlin and Leipsic, only a little over one per cent, of the 
Protestant population are found in church. Protestant- 
ism on the continent seems to be about as poor in spirit- 
ual life and power as Romanism. That means that most 
of the spiritual Christianity in the world is found among 
Anglo-Saxons and their converts ; for this is the great 
missionary race. If we take all of the German mission- 
ary societies together, we find that, in the number of 
workers and amount of contributions, they do not 
equal the smallest of the three great English missionary 
societies. The year that the Congregationalists in the 
United States gave one dollar and thirty-seven cents per 
caput to foreign missions, the members of the great Ger- 
man State Church gave only three-quarters of a cent per 
caput to the same cause, i Evidently it is chiefly to the 
English and American peoples that we must look for the 
evangelization of the world. 

It is not necessary to argue to those for whom I write 
that the two great needs of mankind, that all men may 
be lifted up into the light of the highest Christian civiliza- 
tion, are, first, a pure, spiritual Christianity, and second, 

1 Christlieb's Protestant Foreign Missions, pp. 34 and 37. 



210 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 

civil liberty. Without controversy, these are the forces 
which, in the past, have contributed most to the eleva- 
tion of the human race, and they must continue to be, in 
the future, the most efficient ministers to its progress. 
It follows, then, that the Anglo-Saxon, as the great 
representative of these two ideas, the depositary of these 
two greatest blessings, sustains pecuHar relations to the 
world's future, is divinely commissioned to be, in a pecul- 
iar sense, his brother's keeper. Add to this the fact of his 
rapidly increasing strength in modern times, and we 
have well-nigh a demonstration of his destiny. In 1700 
this race numbered less than 6,000,000 souls. In 1800, 
Anglo-Saxons (I use the term somewhat broadly to in- 
clude all English-speaking peoples) had increased to 
about 20,500,000, and now, in 1890, they number more than 
120,000,000, having multiplied almost six-fold in ninetj^ 
years. At the end of the reign of Charles II. the En- 
glish colonists in America numbered 200,000. During 
these two hundred years, our population has increased 
two hundred and fifty-fold. And the expansion of this 
race has been no less remarkable than its multiplication. 
In one century the United States has increased its ter- 
ritory ten-fold, while the enormous acquisition of foreign 
territory by Great Britain-— and chiefly within the last 
hundred years — is wholly unparalleled in history. This 
mighty Anglo-Saxon race, though comprising only one- 
thirteenth part of mankind, now rules more than one- 
third of the earth's surface, and more than one-fourth of 
its people. And if this race, while growing from 6,000,- 
000 to 120,000,000, thus gained possession of a third por- 
tion of the earth, is it to be supposed that when it 
numbers 1,000,000,000, it will lose the disposition, or lack 
the power to extend its sway? 

This race is multiplying not only more rapidly than 
any other European race, but more rapidly than all the 
races of continental Europe taken together. There is no 
exact knowledge of the population of Europe early in 
the century. We know, however, that the increase on 
the continent during the ten years from 1870 to 1880 was 



THE AKGLO-SAXON AI^D THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 211 

6.89 per cent. If this rate of increase is sustained for a 
century, the population on the continent in 1980 will be 
534,000,000; while the one Anglo-Saxon race, if it should 
multiply for a hundred years as fast as from 1870 to 
1880, would in 1980 number 1,111,000,000 souls, an incred- 
ible increase, of course. 

What then will be the probable numbers of this race a 
hundred years hence? It is hazardous to venture a 
prophecy, but we may weigh probabilities. In studying 
this subject several things must be borne in mind. Here- 
tofore, the great causes which have operated to check 
the growth of population in the world have been war, 
famine, and pestilence; but, among civihzed peoples, 
these causes are becoming constantly less operative, 
Paradoxical as it seems, the invention of more destruc- 
tive weapons of war renders war less destructive ; com- 
merce and wealth have removed the fear of famine, and 
pestilence is being brought more and more under control 
by medical skill and sanitary science. Moreover, Anglo- 
Saxons, with the exception of the people of Great Brit- 
ain, who now compose less than one-third of this race, 
are much less exposed to these checks upon growth than 
the races of Europe. Again, Europe is crowded, and is 
constantly becoming more so, which will tend to reduce 
continually the ratio of increase ; while over two- thirds 
of the Anglo-Saxons occupy lands which invite almost 
unlimited expansion — the United States, Canada, Aus- 
tralia, and South Africa. Again, emigration from Eur- 
ope, which will probably increase, is very largely into 
Anglo-Saxon countries; and, though these foreign ele- 
ments exert a modifying influence on the Anglo-Saxon 
stock, their descendants are certain to be Anglo-Saxon- 
ized. From 1870 to 1880, Germany lost 987,000 inhabi- 
tants by emigration, most of whom came to the 
United States. In one generation, their children will be 
counted Anglo-Saxons. This race has been undergoing 
an unparalleled expansion during the eighteenth and 
nineteenth centuries, and the conditions for its continued 
growth are singularly favorable. 



212 THE ANGLO-SAXOi^ A^B THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 



We are now prepared to ask what light statistics cast 
on the future. In Great Britain, from 1840 to 1850, the 
ratio of increase of the population was 2.49 per cent ; 
during the next ten years it was 5.44 per cent. ; the next 
ten years, it was 8.60; from 1870 to 1880, it was 10.57; 
and from 1880 to 1889 it was 10.08 per cent. That is, for 
fifty years the ratio of increase has been rapidly rising. 

It is not unlikely to continue rising for some time to 
come ; but, remembering that the population is dense, in 
making our estimate for the next hundred years, we will 
suppose the ratio of increase to be only one-half as large 
as that from 1870 to 1880, which would make the popula- 
tion in 1980, 57,000,000. All the great colonies of Britain, 
except Canada, which has a great future, show a very 
high ratio of increase in population ; that of Australia, 
from 1870 to 1880, was 56.50 per cent.; that of South 
Africa was 73.28. It is quite reasonable to suppose that 
the colonies, taken together, will double their population 
once in twenty-five years for the next century. In the 
United States, population has, on the average, doubled 
once in twenty-five years since 1685. Adopting this 
ratio, then, for the English colonies, their 11,000,000 in 
1880 will be 176,000,000 in 1980, and about 234,000,000 in 
1990. Turning now to our own country, we find in the 
following table the ratio of increase of population for 
each decade of years since 1800 : 

From 1800 to 1810 36.38 per cent. 



1810 

1820 
1830 
1840 
1850 
1860 
1870 
1880 



1820 34.80 

1830 33.11 

1840 32.66 

1850 35.87 

1860 35.58 

1870 22.59 

1880 30.06 

1890 24.57 



Here we see a falling ratio of increase of about one per 
cent, every ten years from 1800 to 1840 — a period when 
immigration was inconsiderable. During the next 



THE AKGLO-SAXOK AKD THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 213 

twenty years the ratio was decidedly higher, because of 
a large immigration. It fell off during the war, and 
again arose from 1870 to 1880, while it seems to have 
fallen from 1880 to 1890. ^ 

If the rate of increase for the next century is as great 
with immigration as it was from 1800 to 1840 without 
immigration, we shall have a falling ratio of increase of 
about one per cent, every ten years. Beginning, then, 
with an increase of twenty-four per cent, from 1890 to 
1900, our population in 1990 would be 373,000,000, making 
the total Anglo-Saxon population of the world, at that 
time, 667,000,000, as compared with 570,000,000 inhabi- 
tants of continental Europe. When we consider how 
much more favorable are the conditions for the increase 
of population in Anglo-Saxon countries than in con- 
tinental Europe, and remember that w^e have reckoned 
the growth of European population at its rate of 
increase from 1870 to 1880, while we have reckoned Anglo- 
Saxon growth at much less than its rate of increase 
during the same ten years, we may be reasonably 
confident that a hundred years hence this one race will 
outnumber all the peoples of continental Europe. And 
it is possible that, by the close of the next century, the 
Anglo-Saxons will outnumber all the other civilized 
races of the world. Does it not look as if God were not 

1 It should be remembered, however, that great populations do not show 
sudden changes in the rate of increase without such causes as war, anarchy, 
pestilence , famine or great migrations. No such cause has been operative 
with us during the past ten years, except a great immigration, which would 
of course raise the rate of increase. It is, therefore, hardly credible, that our 
ratio of increase fell five and a half per cent, during that period. Still less 
likely is it that, conditions remaining substantially the same from 1870 to 
1890, the rate of increase could have risen so rapidly during the first half of 
the period, and then have fallen so rapidly during the last half. The 
explanation is to be found in the Census of 1870, which General Francis A. 
Walker, the superintendent, says was "grossly defective." As the returns 
of that census were undoubtedly too small there was no such rise in the rate 
of increase from 1870 to 1880 and, therefore, no such fall in that rate from 
1880 to 1890 as the above figures indicate. The superintendent of the late 
census says " there is but little question that the population in 1870 was at 
least 40,000,000," which would make the rate of increase from 1870 to 1880 not 
far from 25 per cent, or about the same as from 1880 to 1890. 



214 THE AHGLO-SAXOiq^ AiTD THE WORLD^S FUTURE. 

only preparing in our Anglo-Saxon civilization the die 
with which to stamp the peoples of the earth, but as if 
he were also massing behind that die the mighty power 
with which to press it ? My confidence that this race is 
eventually to give its civilization to mankind is not based 
on mere numbers — China forbid! I look forward to 
what the world has never yet seen united in the same 
race; viz., the greatest numbers, and the highest 
civilization. 

There can be no reasonable doubt that North America 
is to be the great home of the Anglo-Saxon, the principal 
seat of his power, the center of his life and influence. 
Not only does it constitute seven-elevenths of his pos- 
sessions, but here his empire is unsevered, while the 
remaining four-elevenths are fragmentary and scattered 
over the earth. Australia will have a great population ; 
but its disadvantages, as compared with North America, 
are too manifest to need mention. Our continent has 
room and resources and climate, it lies in the pathway 
of the nations, it belongs to the zone of power, and 
already, among Anglo-Saxons, do we lead in population 
and wealth. Of England, Franklin once wrote: "That 
pretty island which, compared to America, is but a step- 
ping-stone in a brook, scarce enough of it above water 
to keep one's shoes dry." England can hardly hope to 
maintain her relative importance among Anglo-Saxon 
peoples when her ' ' pretty island " is the home of only 
one-twentieth part of that race. With the wider distri- 
bution of wealth, and increasing facilities of intercourse, 
intelligence and influence are less centralized, and 
peoples become more homogeneous ; and the more nearly 
homogeneous peoples are, the more do numbers tell. 

America is to have the great preponderance of 
numbers and of wealth, and by the logic of events will 
follow the scepter of controlling influence. This will be 
but the consummation of a movement as old as civiliza- 
tion — a result to which men have looked forward for 
centuries. John Adams records that nothing was 
"more ancient in his memory than the observation 



THE AKGLO-SAXOK AN^D THE WORLD's FUTURE. 215 

that arts, sciences and empire had traveled westward; 
and in conversation it was always added that their next 
leap would be over the Atlantic into America." He 
recalled a couplet that had been " inscribed" or rather 
drilled, into a rock on the shore of Monument Bay in 
our old colony of Plymouth : 

'The Eastern nations sink, their glory ends, 
And empire rises where the sun descends.' "1 

The brilliant Gahani, who foresaw a future in which 
Europe should be ruled by America, wrote, during the 
Revolutionary War: "I will wager in favor of America, 
for the reason merely physical, that for 5,000 years 
genius has turned opposite to the diurnal motion, and 
traveled from the East to the West." ^ Count d'Aranda, 
after signing the Treaty of Paris of 1773, as representa- 
tive of Spain, wrpte his king: "This Federal Republic 

is born a pigmy a day will come when it will 

be a giant, even a colossus formidable in these coun- 
tries." 

Adam Smith, in his "Wealth of Nations," predicts 
the transfer of empire from Europe to America. The 
traveler, Burnaby, found, in the middle of the last cen- 
tury, that an idea had "entered into the minds of the 
generality of mankind, that empire is traveling west- 
ward; and every one is looking forward with eager 
and impatient expectation to that destined moment 
when America is to give the law to the rest of the 
world." Charles Sumner wrote of the "coming time 
when the whole continent, with all its various states, 
shall be a Plural Unit, with one Constitution, one Lib- 
erty and one Destiny," and when "the national ex- 
ample will be more puissant than army or navy for the 
conquest of the world." ^ It surely needs no prophet's 
eye to see that the civilization of the United States is 
to be the civilization of America, and that the future 

1 John Adams' Works, Vol. ix, pp. 597-599. 

» Galiani, Tome II. p. 275. 

3 See The Atlantic, Vol. XX, pp. 275—306. 



r 



216 THE AKGLO-SAXOK AKD THE WOBLD^S FUTUEE. 

of the continent is ours. In 1880, the United States 
had already become the home of more than one-half of 
the Anglo-Saxon race ; and, if the computations already- 
given, are correct, a much larger proportion will be here 
a hundred years hence. It has been shown that we 
have room for at least a thousand millions. According 
to the latest figures, there is in France (1886), a popula- 
tion of 187 to the square mile; in Germany (1885), 221.8; 
in England and Wales (1889), 498; in Belgium (1888), 
530; in the United States (1890) — not including Alaska — 
21. If our population were as dense as that of France, 
we should have, this side of Alaska, 555,000,000; if as 
dense as that of Germany, 658, 000, 000; if as dense as that 
of England and Wales, 1,452,000,000; if as dense as that 
of Belgium 1,574,000,000, or more than the present esti- 
mated population of the globe. 

And we are to have not only the larger portion of 
the Anglo-Saxon race, but we may reasonably expect to 
develop the highest type of Anglo-Saxon civilization. 
If human progress follows a law of development, if 

" Time's noblest offspring is the last," 

our civilization should be the noblest ; for we are 

" The heirs of all the ages in the foremost files of time," 

and not only do we occupy the latitude of power, but 
our land is the last to he occupied in that latitude. 
There is no other virgin soil in the North Temperate 
Zone. If the consummation of human progress is not 
to be looked for here, if there is yet to flower a higher 
civilization, where is the soil that is to produce it? 
Whipple says:^ "There has never been a great mi- 
gration that did not result in a new form of national 
genius." Our national genius is Anglo-Saxon, but not 
English, its distinctive type is the result of a finer 
nervous organization, which is certainly . being devel- 



1 Atlantic for October, 1858. 



THE AKGLO-SAXOK AKD THE WORLD'S FUTUEE. 217 

oped in this country. "The history of the world's 
progress from savagery to barbarism, from barbarism 
to civilization, and, in civilization, from the lower de 
grees toward the higher, is the history of increase in 
average longevity,^ corresponding to, and accompanied 
by, increase of nervousness. Mankind has grown to be | 
at once more delicate and more enduring, more sensitive ^ 
to weariness and yet more patient of toil, impressible, 
but capable of bearing powerful irritation; we are 
woven of finer fiber, which, though apparently frail, yet 
outlasts the coarser, as rich and costly garments often- 
times wear better than those of rougher workmanship. " ^ 
The roots of civilization are the nerves; and other 
things being equal, the finest nervous organization will 
produce the highest civilization. Heretofore, war has 
been almost the chief occupation of strong races. The 
mission of the Anglo-Saxon has been largely that of 
the soldier; but the world is making progress, we are 
leaving behind the barbarism of war; as civilization 
advances, it will learn less of war, and concern itself 
more with the arts of peace, and for these the massive 
battle-ax must be wrought into tools of finer temper. 
The physical changes accompanied by mental, which 
are taking place in the people of the United States are 
apparently to adapt men to the demands of a higher 
civilization. But the objection is here interposed that 
the ' ' physical degeneracy of America " is inconsist- 
ent with the supposition of our advancing to a higher 
civilization. Professor Huxley, when at Buffalo he 
addressed the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, said he had heard of the degeneration 
of the original American stock, but during his visit to 
the states he had failed to perceive it. We are not, 
however, in this matter, dependent on the opinion of 

1 "It is ascertained that the average measure of human life, in this coun- 
try, has been steadily increasing during this century, and is now considerably 
longer than in any other country.'^ Dorchester's Problem of Religious 
Progress, p. 288. 

2 Beard's American Nervousness, p. 287. 



218 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD^S FUTURE. 

even the best observers. During the War of the Con- 
federacy, the Medical Department of the Provost Mar- 
shal General's Bureau gathered statistics from the ex- 
amination of over half a million of men, native and 
foreign, young and old, sick and sound, drawn from 
every rank and condition of life, and, hence, fairly rep- 
resenting the whole people. Dr. Baxter's Official Re- 
port shows that our native whites were over an inch 
taller than the English, and nearly two- thirds of an 
inch taller than the Scotch, who, in height, were supe- 
rior to all other foreigners. At the age of completed 
growth, the Irish, who were the stoutest of the for- 
eigners, surpassed the native whites, in girth of chest, 
less than a quarter of an inch. Statistics as to weight 
are meager, but Dr. Baxter remarks that it is perhaps 
not too much to say that the war statistics show ' ' that 
the mean weight of the white native of the United 
States is not disproportionate to his stature." Ameri- 
cans were found to be superior to Englishmen not only 
in height, but also in chest measurement and weight. 
' ' Dealers in ready-made clothing in the United States 
assert that they have been obliged to adopt a larger 
scale of sizes, in width as well as length, to meet the 
demands of the average American man, than were 
required ten years ago." ^ Such facts afford more than 
a hint that the higher civilization of the future will not 
lack an adequate physical basis in the people of the 
United States. 

Mr. Darwin is not only disposed to see, in the supe- 
rior vigor of our people, an illustration of his favorite 
theory of natural selection, but even intimates that the 
world's history thus far has been simply preparatory for 
our future, and tributary to it. He says : ^ " There is 
apparently much truth in the belief that the wonderful 
progress of the United States, as well as the character of 
the people, are the results of natural selection ; for the 



* Receftt Economic Changes, by David A. Wells (1889). 
2 Descent of Man, Part I., p. 142. 



THE ANGLO-SAXOK AKD THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 219 

more energetic, restless, and courageous men from all f j 
parts of Europe have emigrated during the last ten or / 

twelve generations to that great country, and have there / 

succeeded best. Looking at the distant future, I do not / 
think that the Rev. Mr. Zincke takes an exaggerated / 
view when he says : ' All other series of events — as that / 
which resulted in the culture of mind in Greece, and I 
that which resulted in the Empire of Rome— only appear h 
to have purpose and value when viewed in connection /l 
with, or rather as subsidiary to, the great stream of J 
Anglo-Saxon emigration to the West.' " 

There is abundant reason to believe that the Anglo-Saxon 
race is to be, is, indeed, already becoming, more effective 
here than in the mother country. The marked superior- 
ity of this race is due, in large measure, to its highly 
mixed origin. Says Rawlinson : ^ " It is a general rule, 
now almost universally admitted by ethnologists, that 
the mixed races of mankind are superior to the pure 
ones"; and adds: "Even the Jews, who are so often 
cited as an example of a race at once pure and strong, 
may, with more reason, be adduced on the opposite side 
of the argument." The ancient Egyptians, the Greeks, 
and the Romans, were all mixed races. Among modern 
races, the most conspicuous example is afforded by the 
Anglo-Saxons. Mr. Green's studies show that Mr. 
Tennyson's poetic line, 



" Saxon and Norman and Dane are we," 

must be supplemented with Celt and Gaul, Welshman 
and Irishman, Frisian and Flamand, French Huguenot 
and German Palatine. What took place a thousand 
years ago and more in England again transpires to-day 
in the United States. " History repeats itself " ; but, as 
the wheels of history are the chariot wheels of the Al- 
mighty, there is, with every revolution, an onward 
movement toward the goal of His eternal purposes. 

1 Princeton Review, for November, 1878. 



r 



220 THE ANGLO-SAXOK AND THE WOELD'S FUTURE. 

There is here a new commingling of races ; and, while 
the largest injections of foreign blood are substantially^ 
the same elements that constituted the original Anglo- 
Saxon admixture, so that we may infer the general type 
will be preserved, there are strains of other bloods being 
added, which, if Mr. Emerson's remark is true, that 
"the best nations are those most widely related," may 
be expected to improve the stock, and aid it to a higher 
destiny. If the dangers of immigration, which have been 
pointed out, can be successfully met for the next few 
years, until it has passed its climax, it may be expected 
to add value to the amalgam which will constitute the 
new Anglo-Saxon race of the New World. Concerning 
our future, Herbert Spencer says: " One great result is, 
I think, tolerably clear. From biological truths it is to 
be inferred that the eventual mixture of the allied varie- 
ties of the Aryan race, forming the population, will 
produce a more powerful type of man than has hitherto 
existed, and a type of man more plastic, more adaptable, 
more capable of undergoing the modifications needful 
for complete social life. I think, whatever diflficulties 
they m.ay have to surmount, and whatever tribulations 
they may have to pass through, the Americans may 
reasonably look forward to a time when they will have 
produced a civilization grander than any the world has 
known." 

It may be easily shown, and is of no small significance, 
that the two great ideas of which the Anglo-Saxon is the 
exponent are having a fuller development in the United 
States than in Great Britain. There the union of Church 
and State tends strongly to paralyze some of the members 
of the body of Christ. Here there is- no such influence 
to destroy spiritual life and power. Here, also, has been 
evolved the form of government consistent with the 
largest possible civil liberty. Furthermore, it is signifi- 
cant that the marked characteristics of this race are be- 
ing here emphasized most. Among the most striking 
features of the Anglo-Saxon is his money-making power 
— a power of increasing importance in the widening com- 



THE AN^GLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD^S FUTURE. 221 

merce of the world's future. We have seen, in a pre- 
ceding chapter, that, "although England is by far the 
richest nation of Europe, we have already outstripped 
her in the race after wealth, and we have only begun 
the development of our vast resources. 

Again, another marked characteristic of the Anglo- 
Saxon is what may be called an instinct or genius for 
colonizing. His unequaled energy, his indomitable per- 
severance, and his personal independence, made him a 
pioneer. He excels all others in pushing his way into 
new countries. It was those in whom this tendency 
was strongest that came to America, and this inherited 
tendency has been further developed by the westward 
sweep of successive generations across the continent. 
So noticeable has this characteristic become that 
English visitors remark it. Charles Dickens once said 
that the typical American would hesitate to enter heaven 
unless assured that he could go farther west. 

Again, nothing more manifestly distinguishes the An- 
glo-Saxon than his intense and persistent energy, and he 
is developing in the United States an energy which, in 
eager activity and effectiveness, is peculiarly American. 

This is due partly to the fact that Americans are much 
better fed than Europeans, and partly to the undevel- f' 
oped resources of a new^ country, but more largely to !, 
our climate, which acts as a constant stimulus. Ten 
years after the landing of the Pilgrims, the Rev. Francis / 
Higginson, a good observer, wrote: "A sup of New i 
England air is better than a whole flagon of English ale." [ 
Thus early had the stimulating effect of our" climate 
been noted. Moreover, our social institutions are stimu- 
lating. In Europe tke various ranks of society are, like 
the strata of the earth, fixed and fossilized. There can 
be no great change without a terrible upheaval, a social 
earthquake. Here society is like the waters of the sea, 
mobile ; as General Garfield said, and so signally illus- 
trated in his own experience, that which is at the bot- 
tom to-day may one day flash on the crest of the highest 
wave. Every one is free to become whatever he can 



222 THE ANGLO-SAXOIT AND THE WORLD's FUTURE. 

make of himself ; free to transform, himself from a rail- 
splitter or a tanner or a canal-boy, into the nation's 
President. Our aristocracy, unlike that of Europe, is 
open to all comers. Wealth, position, influence, are prizes 
offered for energy; and every farmer's boy, every ap- 
prentice and clerk, every friendless and penniless immi- 
grant, is free to enter the lists. Thus many causes 
co-operate to produce here the most forceful and tremen- 
dous energy in the world. 

What is the significance of such facts ? These tend- 
encies infold the future; they are the mighty alphabet 
with which God writes his prophecies. May we not, by 
a careful laying together of the letters, spell out some- 
thing of his meaning? It seems to me that God, with 
infinite wisdom and skill, is training the Anglo-Saxon 
race for an hour sure to come in the world's future. 
Heretofore there has always been in the history of the 
world a comparatively unoccupied land westward, into 
which the crowded countries of the East have poured 
their surplus populations. But the widening waves of 
migration, which millenniums ago rolled east and west 
'om the valley of the Euphrates, meet to-day on our 
Pacific coast. There are no more new worlds. The un- 
occupied arable lands of the earth are limited, and will 
soon be taken. The time is coming when the pressure 
of population on the means of subsistence will be felt 
here as it is now felt in Europe and Asia. Then will 
the world enter upon a new stage of its historj— the 
final competition of races, for which the Anglo-Saxon 
is being schooled. Long before the thousand millions 
are here, the mighty centrifugal tendency, inherent in 
this stock and strengthened in the United States, will 
assert itself. Then this race of unequaled energy, with 
all the majesty of numbers and the might of wealth be- 
hind it — the representative, let us hope, of the largest 
liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization 
—having developed peculiarly aggressive traits calcu- 
lated to impress its institutions upon mankind, will 
spread itself over the earth. If I read not amiss, this 



THE ANGLO-SAXON^ AN'D THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 223 

powerful race will move down upon Mexico, down upon 
Central and South America, out upon the islands of 
the sea, over upon Africa and beyond. And can any- 
one doubt that the result of this competition of races 
will be the "survival of the fittest?" "Any people," 
says Dr. Bushnell, " that is physiologically advanced 
in culture, though it be only in a degree beyond another 
which is mingled with it on strictly equal terms, is sure 
to live down and finally live out its inferior. Nothing 
can save the inferior race but a ready and pliant assimi- 
lation. Whether the feebler and more abject races are 
going to be regenerated and raised up, is already very 
much of a question. What if it should be God's plan 
to people the world with better and finer material? 
' ' Certain it is, whatever expectations we may indulge, 
that there is a tremendous overbearing surge of power 
in the Christian nations, which, if the others are not 
speedily raised to some vastly higher capacity, will 
inevitably submerge and bury them forever. These 
great populations of Christendom — what are they doing, 
but throwing out their colonies on every side, and 
populating themselves, if I may so speak, into the pos- 
session of all countries and climes? " ^ To this result no 
war of extermination is needful ; the contest is not one 
of arms, but of vitality and of civilization. ' ' At the 
present day," says Mr. Darwin, "civilized nations are 
everywhere supplanting barbarous nations, excepting 
where the climate opposes a deadly barrier; and they 
succeed mainly, though not exclusively, through their 
arts, which are the products of the intellect." ^ Thus 
the Finns were supplanted by the Aryan races in Europe 
and Asia, the Tartars by the Russians, and thus the 
aborigines of North America, Australia and New Zea- 
land are now disappearing before the all-conquering 
Anglo-Saxons. It seems as if these inferior tribes were 
only precursors of a superior race, voices in the wilder- 



1 Christian Nurture, pp. 207, 213. 
' Descent of Man, Vol, I. p. 154. 



224 THE ANGLO-SAXOK AND THE WOELD'S FUTUKE. 

ness crying: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord!" The 
savage is a hunter ; by the incoming of civilization the 
game is driven away and disappears before the hunter 
becomes a herder or an agriculturist. The savage is 
ignorant of many diseases of civilization which, when 
he is exposed to them, attack him before he learns how 
to treat them. Civilization also has its vices, of which 
the uninitiated savage is innocent. He proves an apt 
learner of vice, but dull enough in the school of morals. 

Every civilization has its destructive and preservative 
elements. The Anglo-Saxon race would speedily decay 
but for the salt of Christianity. Bring savages into 
contact with our civilization, and its destructive forces 
become operative at once, while years are necessary to 
render effective the saving influences of Christian in- 
struction. Moreover, the pioneer wave of our civiliza- 
tion carries with it more scum than salt. Where there 
is one missionary, there are hundreds of miners or 
traders or adventurers ready to debauch the native. 

Whether the extinction of inferior races before the 
advancing Anglo-Saxon seems to the reader sad or other- 
wise, it certainly appears probable. I know of nothing 
except climatic conditions to prevent this race from 
populating Africa as it has peopled North America. 
And those portions of Africa which are unfavorable 
to Anglo-Saxon life are less extensive than was once 
supposed. The Dutch Boers, after tAvo centuries of life 
there, are as hardy as any race on earth. The Anglo- 
Saxon has established himself in climates totally diverse — 
Canada, South Africa, and India — and, through several 
generations, has preserved his essential race characteris- 
tics. He is not, of course, superior to climatic in- 
fluences; but even in warm climates, he is likely to 
retain his aggressive vigor long enough to supplant races 
already enfeebled. Thus, in what Dr. Bushnell calls 
" the out-populating power of the Christian stock," may 
be found God's final and complete solution of the dark 
problem of heathenism among many inferior peoples. 

Some of the stronger races, doubtless, may be able to 



THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOELD'S FUTURE. 225 

preserve their integrity ; but, in order to compete with 
the Anglo-Saxon, they will probably be forced to adopt 
his methods and instruments, his civilization and his re- 
ligion. Significant movements are now in progress 
among them. While the Christian religion was never 
more vital, or its hold upon the Anglo-Saxon mind 
stronger, there is taking place among the nations a wide- 
spread intellectual revolt against traditional beliefs. 
"In every corner of the world," says Mr. Froude,i "there 
is the same phenomenon of the decay of established re- 
ligions. . . . Among the Mohammedans, Jews, Budd- 
hists, Brahmins, traditionary creeds are losing their 
hold. An intellectual revolution is sweeping over 
the world, breaking down established opinions, dissolv- 
ing foundations on which historical faiths have been 
built up." The contact of Christian with heathen na- 
tions is awakening the latter to new life. Old supersti- 
tions are loosening their grasp. The dead crust of fossil 
faiths is being shattered by the movements of life under- 
neath. In Catholic countries, Catholicism is losing its 
influence over educated minds, and in some cases the 
masses have already lost all faith in it. Thus, while on 
this continent God is training the Anglo-Saxon race for 
its mission, a complemental work has been in progress 
in the great world beyond. God has two hands. Not 
only is he preparing in our civilization the die with 
which to stamp the nations, but, by what Southey called 
the "timing of Providence," he is preparing mankind to 
receive our impress. 

Is there room for reasonable doubt that this race, un- 
less devitalized by alcohol and tobacco, is destined to 
dispossess many weaker races, assimilate others, and 
mold the remainder, until, in a very true and important 
sense, it has Anglo-Saxonized mankind? Already "the 
English language, saturated with Christian ideas, gather- 
ing up into itself the best thought of all the ages, is the 
great agent of Christian civilization throughout the 

1 North American Review, December, 1879. 



226 THE AKGLO-SAXOJS^ AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 

world ; at this moment affecting the destinies and mold- 
ing the character of »half the human race." i Jacob 
Grimm, the German philologist, said of this language : 
' ' It seems chosen, like its people, to rule in future times 
in a still greater degree in all the corners of the earth." 
He^edicted, indeed, that the language of Shakespeare 
would eventually become the language of mankind. Is 
not Tennyson's noble prophecy to find its fulfillment in 
Anglo-Saxondom's extending its dominion and influ- 
ence — 

"Till the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are furl'd 
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." 2 

In my own mind, there is no doubt that the Anglo- 
Saxon is to exercise the commanding influence in the 
world's future ; but the exact nature of that influence is, 
as yet, undetermined. How far his civilization will be 
materialistic and atheistic, and how long it will take 
thoroughly to Christianize and sweeten it, how rapidly he 
will hasten the coming of the kingdom wherein dwelleth 
righteousness, or how many ages he may retard it, is still 
uncertain ; but is now being swiftly determined. Let us 
weld together in a chain the various links of our logic 
which we have endeavored to forge. Is it manifest that 
the Anglo-Saxon holds in his hands the destinies of man- 
kind for ages to come? Is it evident that the United 
States is to be the home of this race, the principal seat of 
his power, the great center of his influence? Is it true (see 
Chap. III.) that the great West is to dominate the na- 
tion's future? Has it been shown (Chapters XII. and XIII.) 
that this generation is to determine the character, and 
hence the destiny of the West? Then may God open 
the eyes of this generation ! When Napoleon drew up 
his troops before the Mamelukes, under the shadow of 
the Pyramids, pointing to the latter, he said to his sol- 
diers : ' ' Remember that from yonder heights forty cen- 

» Rev. N. G. Clark, D.D. 2 " Locksley Hall." 



THE AiNGLO-SAXON AND THE VVORLD'B FUTURE. 227 

turies look down on you." Men of this generation, from 
the pyramid top of opportunity on which God has set us, 
we look down on forty centuries ! We stretch our hand 
into the future with power to mold the destinies of un- 
born millions. 

" We are living, we are dwelling, 
III a grand and awful time, 
In an age on ages telling— 
To be living is sublime! " 

Notwithstanding the great perils which threaten it, I 
cannot think our civilization will perish; but I believe 
it is fully in the hands of the Christians of the United 
States, during the next ten or fifteen years, to hasten 
or retard the coming of Christ's kingdom in the world by 
hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years. We of this 
generation and nation occupy the Gibraltar of the ages 
which commands the world's future, 



Average Annual Increase of Wealth of Church-Members in the 
United States from 1880 to 1890, $434,790,000. 



Contributions to Home and Foreign Missions in 1890, $10,695,259. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

Property is one of the cardinal facts of our civiliza- 
tion. It is the great object of endeavor, the great spring 
of power, the great occasion of discontent, and one of 
the great sources of danger. For Christians to appre- 
hend their true relations to money, and the relations of 
money to the kingdom of Christ and its progress in thp 
world, is to find the key to many of the great problems 
now pressing for solution. 

Money is power in the concrete. It commands learn- 
ing, skill, experience, wisdom, talent, influence, numbers. 
It represents the school, the college, the church, the 
printing-press, and all evangelizing machinery. It con- 
fers on the wise man a sort of omnipresence. By means 



MONEY ANB THE KINGDOM. ^^9 

of it, the same man may, at the same moment, be found- 
ing an academy among the Mormons, teaching the New 
Mexicans, building a home missionary church in Dakota, 
translating the Scriptures in Africa, preaching the gospel 
in China, and uttering the precepts of ten thousand 
Bibles in India. It is the modern miracle worker; it 
has a wonderful multiplying and transforming power. 
Sarah Hosmer, of Lowell, though a poor woman, supported 
a student in the Nestorian Seminary, who became a 
preacher of Christ. Five times she gave fifty dollars, 
earning the money in a factory, and sent out five native 
pastors to Christian work. When more than sixty years 
old, she longed to furnish Nestoria with one more 
preacher of Christ; and, living in an attic, she took in 
sewing until she had accomplished her cherished purpose. 
In the hands of this consecrated woman, money trans- 
formed the factory girl and the seamstress into a mission- 
ary of the Cross, and then multiplied her six-fold. God 
forbid that I should attribute to money power which 
belongs only to faith, love, and the Holy Spirit. In the 
problem of Christian work, money is like the cipher, 
worthless alone, but multiplying many fold the value 
and effectiveness of other factors. 

In the preceding chapter has been set forth the won- 
derful opportunity enjoyed by this generation in the 
United States. It lays on us a commensurate obligation. 
We have also seen (Chap. X.) that our wealth is stupen- 
dous. If our responsibility is without a precedent, the 
plenitude of our power is likewise without a parallel. 
Is not the lesson which God would have us learn so plain 
that he who runs may read it? Has not God given us 
this matchless power that it may be applied to doing 
this matchless work? 

The kingdoms of this world will not have become the 
kingdoms of our Lord until the money power has been 
Christianized: "Talent has been Christianized already 
on a large scale. The political power of states and king- 
doms has been long assumed to be, and now at least 
really is, as far as it becomes their accepted office to 



230 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

maintain personal security and liberty. Architecture, 
arts, constitutions, schools, and learning have been 
largely Christianized. But the money power, which is 
one of the most operative and grandest of all, is only 
beginning to be; though with promising tokens of a 
finally complete reduction to Christ and the uses of His 
Kingdom. . . . That day, when it comes, is the morn- 
ing, so to speak, of the new creation." ^ Is it not time for 
that day to dawn? If we would Christianize our Anglo- 
Saxon civilization, which is to spread itself over the 
earth, has not the hour come for the Church to teach and 
live the doctrines of God's Word touching possessions? 
Their general acceptance on the part of the church 
would involve a reformation scarcely less important in 
its results than the great Reformation of the sixteenth 
century. What is needed is not simply an increased 
giving, an enlarged estimate of the "Lord's share," but 
a radically different conception of our relations to our 
possessions. Most Christian men need to discover that 
they are not proprietors, apportioning their own, but 
simply trustees or managers of God's property. All 
Christians would admit that there is a sense in which 
their all belongs to God, but deem it a very poetical 
sense, wholly unpractical and practically unreal. The 
great majority treat their possessions exactly as they 
would treat property, use their substance exactly as if it 
were their own. 

Christians generally hold that God has a thoroughly 
real claim on some portion of their income, possibly a 
tenth, more likely no definite proportion; but some 
small part, they acknowledge, belongs to him, and they 
hold themselves in duty bound to use it for him. This 
low and unchristian view has sprung apparently from a 
misconception of the Old Testament doctrine of tithes. 
God did not, for the surrender of a part, renounce all 
claim to the remainder. The Jew was taught, in lan- 
guage most explicit and oft-repeated, that he and all he 

' Bushnell's Sermons on Living Subjects, pp. 264, 265. 



MON^EY AKD THE KINGDOM. 231 

had belonged absolutely to God. ' ' Behold, the heaven 
and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, thy God, and 
the earth also, with all that therein is" (Deut. x, 14). 
' ' The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof ; the 
world, and they that dwell therein" (Ps. xxiv, 1). " The 
silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord" 
(Hag. ii, 8). "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul 
of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine" 
(Ezek. xviii, 4). When the priest was consecrated, the 
blood of the ram was put upon the right ear, the thumb 
of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, to 
indicate that he should come and go, use his hands and 
powers of mind, in short, his entire self, in the service 
of God. These parts of the body were selected as repre- 
sentative of the whole man. The tithe was likewise 
representative. " For, if the first fruit be holy, the lump 
is also holy" (Eom. xi, 16). Tithes were devoted to cer- 
tain uses, specified by God, in recognition of the fact that 
all belonged to him. 

THE PRINCIPLE STATED. 

God's claim to the whole rests on exactly the same 
ground as his claim to a part. As the Creator, he must 
have an absolute ownership in all his creatures ; and if 
an absolute claim could be strengthened, it would be by 
the fact that he who gave us life sustains it, and with 
his own life redeemed it. "Ye are not your own ; for ye 
are bought with a price " (I Cor. vi, 19, 20). Manifestly, 
if God has absolute ownership in us, we can have abso- 
lute ownership in nothing whatever. If we cannot lay 
claim to our own selves, how much less to that which 
we find in our hands. When we say that no man is the 
absolute owner of property to the value of one penny, 
we do not take the socialistic position that private prop- 
erty is theft. Because of our individual trusts, for 
which we are held personally responsible, we have indi- 
vidual rights touching property, and may have claims 
one against another; but, between God and the soul, the 
distinction of thine and mine is a snare. Does one-tenth 



232 MONEY AKD THE KIJiTGDOM. 

belong to God? Then ten-tenths are his. He did not 
one-tenth create us and we nine-tenths create ourselves. 
He did not one-tenth redeem us and we nine-tenths 
redeem ourselves. If his claim to a part is good, his 
claim to the whole is equally good. His ownership in us 
is no joint affair. We are not in partnership with him. 
All that we are and have is utterly his, and his only. 

When the Scriptures and reason speak of God's 
ownership in us they use the word in no accommodated 
sense. It means all that it can mean in a court of law. 
It means that God has a right to the service of his own. 
It means that, since our possessions are his jproperty, 
they should be used in his service — not a fraction of 
them, but the whole. When the lord returned from the 
far country, to reckon with his servants to whom he had 
entrusted his goods, he demanded not simply a small 
portion of the increase, but held his servants accountable 
for both principal and interest— " mine own with usury. " 
Every dollar that belongs to God must serve him. And it 
is not enough that we make a good use of our means. 
We are under exactly the same obligations to make the 
hest use of our money that we are to make a good use of 
it ; and to make any use of it other than the best is a 
maladministration of trust. Here, then, is the principle 
always applicable, that of our entire possessions, every 
dollar, every cent, is to be employed in the way that will 
best honor God. 

THE PRINCIPLE APPLIED. 

The statement of this principle at once suggests diffi- 
culties in its application. Let us glance at some of them. 

1. An attempt to regulate personal expenditures by this 
principle affords opportunity for fanaticism on the one 
hand and for self-deception on the other ; but an honest 
and intelligent application of it will avoid both. 

Surely, it is right to supply our necessities. But what 
are necessities ? Advancing civihzation multiphes them. 
Friction matches were a luxury once, they are a neces- 
sity now. And may we allow ourselves nothing for the 



MONEY AKD THE Kli^GDOM. 233 

comforts and luxuries of life ? Where shall we draw the 
line between justifiable and unjustifiable expenditure ? 

The Christian has given himself to God, or, rather, has 
recognized and accepted the divine ownership in him. 
He is under obligations to apply every power, whether 
of mind, body, or possessions, to God's service. He is 
bound to make that service as effective as possible. 
Certain expenditures upon himself are necessary to his 
highest growth and greatest usefulness, and are, there- 
fore, not only permissible, but obligatory. All the 
money which will yield a larger return of usefulness in 
the world, of greater good to the Kingdom, by being 
spent on ourselves or families than by being apphed 
otherwise, is used for the glory of God, and is better 
spent than it would have been if given to missions. 
And whatever money is spent on self that would have 
yielded larger returns of usefulness, if applied otherwise, 
is misapplied ; and, if it has been done intelligently, it is 
a case of embezzlement. 

A narrow view at this point is likely to lead us into 
fanaticism. We must look at life in its wide relations, 
and remember that character is its supreme end. Char- 
acter is the one thing in the universe, so far as we know, 
which is of absolute worth, and therefore beyond all 
price. The glory of the Infinite is all of it the glory of 
character. Every expenditure which serves to broaden 
and beautify and upbuild character is worthy. The one 
question ever to be kept in mind is whether it is the 
wisest application of means to the desired end. Will 
this particular application of power in money produce 
the largest results in character ! 

But what of the beautiful ? How far may we gratify 
our love of it ? A delicate and difficult question to 
answer, especially to the satisfaction of those living in 
the midst of a luxurious civilization. Our guiding prin- 
ciple holds here as everywhere, only its application is 
difficult. It is difficult to determine how useful the 
beautiful may be. Doubtless, at times, as Victor Hugo 
has said, ' ' The beautiful is as useful as the useful ; per- 



234 MONEY AKD THE KIKGDOM. 

haps more so. " The ministry of art widens with the 
increasing refinement of the nervous organization. There 
are those to whom the beautiful is, in an important sense, 
a necessity. God loves the beautiful. Each flower 
would yield its seed and perpetuate its kind as surely 
if each blossom were not a smile of its Creator. The 
stars would swing on in their silent, solemn march as 
true to gravitation, if they did not glow like mighty 
rubies and emeralds and sapphires. The clouds would 
be as faithful carriers of the bounty of the sea, if God 
did not paint their morning and evening glory from the 
rainbow as his palette. Yes ; God loves the beautiful, 
and intended we should love it ; but he does not have to 
economize his power ; his resources are not limited. 
When he spreads the splendors of the rising East, it is not 
at the cost of bread enough to feed ten thousand starving 
souls. Art has an educational value in our homes and 
schools and parks and galleries ; but how far may one 
who recognizes his Christian stewardship conscientiously 
go in the encouragement of art and the gratification of 
taste ? If every man did his duty, gave according to 
ability, there would be abundant provision for all Chris- 
tian and philanthropic work, and substance left for the 
patronage of art. But not one man in a hundred is doing 
his duty ; hence those who appreciate the necessities of 
Christian work must fill the breach, are not at liberty to 
make expenditures which would otherwise be wholly 
justifiable. Many expenditures are right abstractly 
considered. That is, would be right in an ideal condition 
of society. But the condition of the world is not ideal ; 
we are surrounded by circumstances which must be 
recognized exactly as they are. Sin is abnormal, the 
world is out of joint ; and such facts lay on us obligations 
whtch would not otherwise exist, make sacrifices neces- 
sary which would not otherwise be binding, forbid the 
gratification of tastes which are natural, and might 
otherwise be indulged. Thrice true is this of us who live 
in this great national crisis and world emergency. It is 
well to play the violin, but not when Eome is burning. 



MOKEY ANi) THE KINGDOM. 235 

Here is a large family of which the husband and father 
is a contemptible lounger (if loafers had any appreciation 
of the eternal fitness of things, they would die) ; he does 
simply nothing for the support of the family. Excep- 
tional cares are, therefore, laid on the wife and mother. 
She must expend all her time and strength to secure the 
bare necessaries of life for her children; and with the 
utmost sacrifice on her part they go hungry and cold. 
If her wretched husband did his duty, she could com- 
mand time and means to beautify the home and make 
the dress of herself and children attractive ; but, under 
the circumstances, it would be worse than foolish for her 
to spend her scant earnings on vases and flowers, laces 
and velvets. God has laid upon Christian nations the 
Avork of evangelizing the heathen world. He has laid 
on us the duty of Christianizing our own heathen, and 
under such conditions that the obligation presses with 
an overwhelming urgency. If this duty were accepted 
by all Christians, the burden would rest lightly upon 
each; but great multitudes in the church are shirking 
all responsibility. So far as the work of missions is con- 
cerned, these members of the household of faith are 
loungers. The unfaithful many throw unnatural bur- 
dens on the faithful few. Under these circumstances he 
who would be faithful must accept sacrifices which 
would not otherwise be his duty. That is, the principle 
always and everywhere applicable, that we are under 
obligations to make the wisest use of every penny, binds 
him to a use of his means which, if every Christian did 
his duty, would not be necessary. Notwithstanding all 
the sacrifices made by some, there are vast multitudes, 
which the established channels of beneficence have placed 
within our reach, who are starving for the Bread of Life. 
As long as this is true, must not high uses of money 
yield to the highest? It is not enough to be sure that we 
are making a good use of means; for, as the Germans 
say, the good is a great enemy of the best. The expen- 
diture of a large sum on a work of art may be a good use 
of the money, but can any one not purblind with selfish- 



236 MONEY AKD THE KIN^GDOM. 

ness fail to see that, when a thousand dollars actually 
represents the salvation of a certain number of souls, 
there are higher uses for the money ? 

The purchase of luxuries is often justified by the fol- 
lowing fallacy: " I am giving work and hence bread to 
the poor ; and it is much wiser thus to let them earn it 
than to encourage them in idleness by bestowing the 
price of the lace in charity." Thus many justify extrav- 
agance and make their luxuries flatter their pride into 
the complacent conviction that they are unselfish. An 
economy in truth— forcing the same act to minister at 
once to self-indulgence and self -righteousness ! Does it 
make no difference to the world how its labor is 
expended, whether on something useful or useless, for 
high uses or low? Your one elegant dress has given 
many day's work to many persons. But is there no self- 
ishness in the fact that their labor was consumed on 
yourself alone when it might have clothed a score or 
more who are now shivering in rags? "Do not cheat 
yourself into thinking that all the finery you can wear 
is so much put into the hungry mouths of those beneath 
you : it is not so ; it is what you yourselves, whether 
you will or no, must sometime instinctively feel it to 
be — it is what those who stand shivering in the streets, 
forming a line to watch you as you step out of your car- 
riages, Tcnow it to be; those fine dresses do not mean 
that so much has been put into their mouths, but that so 
much has been taken out of their mouths. The real 
politico-economical signification of every one of those 
beautiful toilettes is just this : that you have had a cer- 
tain number of people put for a certain number of days 
wholly under your authority by the sternest of slave- 
masters, — hunger and cold; and you have said to them, 
' I will feed you, indeed, and clothe you, and give you 
fuel for so many days : but during those days you shall 
work for me only ; your little brothers need clothes, but 
you shall make none for them ; your sick friend needs 
clothes, but you shall make none for her; you yourself 
will soon need another, and a warmer dress, but you 



MON"EY AI^D THE KINGDOM. 237 

shall make none for yourself. You shall make nothing 
but lace and roses for me ; for this fortnight to come, 
you shall work at the patterns and petals, and then I 
will crush and consume them away in an hour/ . . . 
As long as there are cold and nakedness in the land 
around you, so long there can be no question at all but 
that splendor of dress is a crime. In due time when we 
have nothing better to set people to work at, it may be 
right to let them make lace and cut jewels ; but, as long 
as there are any who have no blankets for their beds, 
and no rags for their bodies, so long it is blanket-making 
and tailoring we must set people to work at — not lace. " ^ 
These principles which Mr. Euskin applies to splendor 
of dress are equally applicable to all luxuries, and are 
an answer to all those self-deceivers who excuse their 
selfish expenditures on the ground that they give work 
to persons needing it. ' ' Many hold that an enormous 
expenditure of wealth is highly commendable, because 
it 'makes trade.' They forget that waste is not wealth- 
making; war, fire, the sinking of a ship also 'make 
trade,' because by destroying existing capital they 
increase demand. The wealth thus wasted would, more 
wisely used, give work to many more people in creating 
more wealths "2 

Again, the advocates or excusers of self-indulgence 
pose as the vindicators of God's love. They tell us that 
he gave all good things for the uses of his children, and 
that he rejoices in their delight. Yes ; God is even 
more benevolent than such suppose. So greatly does he 
desire our joy that he is not content to see us satisfied 
with the low delights of self -gratification, but would 
fain have us know the blessedness of self-sacrifice for 
others. The writer has no sympathy with asceticism. 
There is no virtue in deformity ; good taste is not 
unchristian ; beauty often costs no more than ugliness. 
Away with the idea of penance. It belies God, and 



1 True and Beautiful, pp. 431, 422. 

a Economic Tract No. X. Of Work and Wealth, by R. R. Bowker. 



238 MONEY Al^D THE KINGDOM. 

caricatures the Christian religion. It differs from the 
self-sacrifice which Christ taught and exemplified as 
widely as the suicide of Cato differed from the heroic 
death of Arnold von Winkelried. Christ did not die for 
the sake of dying, but to save a world ; and he does not 
inculcate self-denial for the sake of self-denial, but for 
the sake of others. 

Many practice self-denial, if not for its own sake, only 
for the sake of saving, and with little or no reference to 
giving. Let a Japanese heathen show us a more excel- 
lent way. I take the following account from Tlip. 
Missionary Herald, (Sept. , 1885) . In a certain place, and 
generation by generation, the owner and relatives of a 
certain house prospered greatly. Year by year, those 
persons, on the second day of the New Year, assembled 
and worshiped the god Kannin Daimiyo-jin-san. The 
meaning of the name in English is ' ' the great, bright god 
of self-restraint. " After engaging in worship, the head 
of the house opened the Kannin-haho (self-restraint box), 
and distributed to the needy money enough to enable 
them to live in comfort for a time. The money in the box 
was the annual accumulation of his offering to his god. 

Outsiders, learning of the prosperity, worship, and 
large giving to the needy, which characterized this 
family, were astonished, and presented themselves to 
inquire into the matter. The master of the house, in 
reply, gave the following account of the practice of his 
household : 

' ' From ancient times, my family has believed in and 
worshiped ' the great, bright god of self-restraint. ' We 
have also made a box, and called it, 'the self-restraint 
box,' for the reception of the first-fruits and other per- 
centages, all of which are offered to our god. 

"As to percentages, this is our mode of proceeding : 
If I would buy a dollar garment, I manage by self- 
restraint and economy to get it for eighty cents, and the 
remaining twenty cents I drop into ' the self-restraint 
box' ; or if I would give a five-dollar feast to my friends, 
I exercise self-restraint and economy, and give it for 



MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 239 

four, dropping the remaining dollar into the box ; or, if 
I determine to build a house that shall cost one hundred 
dollars, I exercise self-restraint and economy, and build 
it for eighty, putting the remaining twenty dollars into 
the box as an offering to Kannin Daimiyo-jin-san. . . . 
In proportion to my annual outlays, the sum in this box is 
large or small. This year my outlays have been large ; 
hence by the practiceof the virtues named, the amount 
in ' the self-restraint box ' is great. Yet, notwithstand- 
ing this, we are living in comfort, peace and hai:)pi- 
ness. " Among us, outlays and benefactions are apt to 
to be in inverse, instead of direct, ratio. I am strongly 
inclined to think that Christians could gain easy forgive- 
ness for a little idolatry of ' ' the great, bright god of 
self-restraint." And if the "self-restraint box " were 
marked Home Missions, and the savings resulting from 
our self-denial were dropped into it, the ' ' million dollars 
a year" called for by Dr. Goodell, in 1881, would be 
given ten times over. 

The general acceptance, by the Church, of the Chris- 
tian principle that every penny is to be used in the way 
that will best honor God, would cause every channel of 
benevolence to overflow its banks, and occasion a blessed 
freshet of salvation throughout the world. "But," says 
some one, "that principle demands daily self-denial." 
Undoubtedly ; and that fact is the Master's seal set to its 
truth. "If any man will come after me, let him deny 
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me," 
(Luke ix, 23). 

2. And there are no exceptions to this law of sacrifice ; 
it binds all alike. Christian people will agree that mis- 
sionaries are called to make great sacrifices for Christ ; 
but why does the obligation rest on them any more than 
on all? Does the missionary belong absolutely to God? 
No less do we. Do the love and sacrifice of Christ lay 
him under boundless obligation? Christ died for every 
man. Why is not the rich man in America under as 
great obligation to practice self-sacrifice for the salvation 
of the heathen as the missionary in Central Africa, pro- 



240 MOKEY AND THE KII5"GD0M. 

vided his sacrifice can be made fruitful of their good? 
And that is exactly the provision which is made by mis- 
sionary boards to day. They establish channels of inter- 
communication which bring us into contact with all 
heathendom, and make Africa, which, centuries ago, fell 
among thieves, and has ever since been robbed and sore 
wounded, our neighbor. To live in luxury, and then 
leave a legacy for missions, does not fulfill the law of 
sacrifice. Every steward is responsible for the disposi- 
tion of his trust made by will. The obligation still rests 
upon him to bestow his possessions where, after his 
death, they will do most for God. Legacies to benev- 
olent societies ought to be greatly multiplied, and 
would be, if the principle of Christian stewardship were 
accepted; but such a legacy cannot compound for an 
unconsecrated life. If the priest or Levite, who passed 
by on the other side, wrote a codicil to his will, provid- 
ing for wounded wayfarers, I fear it was hardly counted 
unto him for righteousness, was hardly a proof that he 
loved his neighbor as himself. Christ said : ' ' Go ye into 
all the world, and preach the gospel;" and he did not 
say it to the twelve, but to the whole body of believers. 
If we cannot go in person, we are under obligations to 
go by proxy. The rich man has more power to send 
than the missionary has to go ; he can, perhaps, send a 
dozen. And why is he not called to make as great sacri- 
fices in sending as the missionary in going f ^ The obliga- 



1 Glance at some of the sacrifices of missionaries who go to the frontier. 
Writing to the Congregational Union for aid to build a parsonage, one says: 

" Am sleeping in a shack three miles from town, and taking my meals at 
the hotel. Not a house or building of any kind to be had to live in. My 
family are in Ohio, awaiting arrangements for a home. Can you help us?" 

Another writes: "During the first two years' service here, was obliged to 
live in Seattle, seven miles away, going to and fro on foot. For one year 
since, have occupied such a building as I could erect in thirty days, with my 
own hands." 

Another: " My wife and myself, with our daughter of six years, have been 
doing our best to live (if it can be called living) in an attic of a store. It is all 
unfinished inside. By putting up a board partition we have two rooms. To 
reach our rooms we have to go around to the rear of the store, and make 
our way among boxes, barrels, tin cans, etc., to the foot of the outside st9,ir- 



MOKEY AKD THE KINGDOM. 241 

tions of all men rest on the same grounds. The law 
of sacrifice is universal. ' ' If any man will come after 
me;" that means Dives and Lazarus alike; the terms 
are all-inclusive. And not only must all men sacrifice, 
but the tneasure of sacrifice is the same for all. God 
does not ask of any two the same gift, because to no two 
are his gifts the same ; but he does require of every man 
the same sacrifice. "Whosoever he be of you that for- 
saketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." 
(Luke xiv, 33). To give the little all is as hard as to 
give the abounding all. In both cases the sacrifice is 
the same ; for it is measured less by what is given than 
by what remains. Only when the sacrifice is all-inclu- 
sive is it perfect and entire. It is the sacrifice, not the 
gift, which is the essential thing in God's eye. What 
he demands of every soul is a complete sacrifice — the 
absolute surrender of self, of all powers and all posses- 
sions; not the abandoning oi the latter any more than 
of the former, but their entire surrender to God to be 
used honestly for him. In George Herbert's noble 
words : 

" Next to Sincerity, remember still. 
Thou must resolve upon Integrity. 
God will have all thou hast ; thy mind, thy will, 
Thy thoughts, thy words, thy works." 

Whatever their occupation. Christians liave but one 
business in the world; viz., the extending of Christ's 
kingdom ; and merchant, mechanic, and banker are un- 
der exactly the same obligations to be wholly consecrated 
to that work as is the missionary. 

way that leads to our attic. We are doing our best to keep warm ; but with 
mercury twenty degrees below zero we do hot find it easy. Then for these 
accommodations, which are the best and all we can get, we have to pay $10 a 
month. Our salary is only $500. Cannot the Union loan us $250, to help us 
build? " 

Another, writing for a loan, says "My family of seven lived all summer, 
in a house twelve by sixteen, having only two rooms." 

Many are heroically enduring hardship for the Kingdom, at the front, 
whose sacrifices would be less if ours were greater, whose sufferings could 
be relieved if our luxuries were curtailed. 



242 MOKEY Al^D THE KIII^'GDOM. 

3. One who believes that every dollar belongs to God, 
and is to be used for him, will not imagine that he has 
discharged all obligation by "giving a tenth to the 
Lord." One who talks about the "Lord's tenth," prob- 
ably thinks about "his own" nine-tenths. The ques- 
tion is not what proportion belongs to God, but hav- 
ing given all to him, what proportion will best honor 
him by being applied to the uses of myself and family, 
and what proportion will best honor him by being ap- 
plied to benevolent uses. Because necessities differ this 
proportion will differ. One man has a small income and 
a large family ; another has a large income and no 
family at all. Manifestly the proportion which will best 
honor God by being applied to benevolence is much 
larger in the one case than in the other. God, therefore, 
requires a different proportion to be thus applied in the 
two cases. If men's needs varied directly as their in- 
comes, it might, perhaps, be practicable and reasonable 
to fix on some definite proportion as due from all to 
Christian and benevolent work. But, while men's wants 
are quite apt to grow with their income, their needs do 
not.^ A man whose income is five hundred dollars may 
have the same needs as his neighbor whose income is 
fifty thousand. 

There are multitudes in the land who, after having 
given one-tenth of their increase, might fare sumptu- 
ously every day, gratify every whim, and live with the 
most lavish expenditure. Would that fulfill the law of 
Christ, ' ' If any man will come after me let him deny 
himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me ? " 

There is always a tendency to substitute form for spirit, 
rules for principles. It is so much easier to conform the 
conduct to a rule than to make a principle inform the 
whole life. Moses prescribed rules ; Christ inculcated 
principles— rules for children, principles for men. 



1 When John Wesley's income was £30, he lived on £28, and gave two ; 
and when his income rose to £60, and afterwards to £120, he still lived on 
£28, and give all the i-emainder. 



MONEY AKD THE KINGDOM. 243 

The law of tithes was given when the race was in its 
childhood, and the relations of money to the kingdom 
of God were radically different from what they are now. 
The Israelite was not held responsible for the conversion 
of the world. Money had no such spiritual equivalents 
then as now ; it did not represent the salvation of the 
heathen. The Jew was required simply to make pro- 
visions for his own worship ; and its limited demands 
might appropriately be met by levying upon a certain 
proportion of his increase. Palestine was his world and 
his kindred the race ; but, under the Christian dispen- 
sation, the world is our country, and the race our kin- 
dred. The needs of the world to-day are boundless ; 
hence, every man's obligation to supply that need is the 
full measure of his ability ; not one-tenth, or any other 
fraction of it. And no one exercises that full measure 
until he has sacrificed. 

By all means let there be system. It is as valuable in 
giving as in anything else. Proportionate giving to 
benevolence is both reasonable and scriptural — " as God 
hath prospered." It is well to fix on some proportion of 
income, less than which we will not give, and then bring 
expenses within the limit thus laid down. But when 
this proportion has been given — be it a tenth, or fifth, or 
half —it does not follow necessarily that duty has been 
fully done. There can be found in rules no substitute 
for an honest purpose and a consecrated heart. 

4. The principle that every dollar is to be used in the 
way that will best honor God is as applicable to capital 
as to increase or income, and in many cases requires that 
a portion of capital be applied directly to benevolent 
uses. " But," says one, " I must not give of my capital, 
because that would impair my ability to give in the 
future. I must not kill the goose that lays the golden 
egg.'''' The objection is of weight, especially in ordinary 
times ; but these are times wholly extraordinary ; this 
is the world's emergency. It may be quite true that 
giving one dollar now out of your capital would prevent 
your giving five dollars fifteen years hence. But it 



244 MOKEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

should be remembered that, for home missionary work, 
one dollar now is worth ten dollars fifteen years later. 
This saying has become proverbial among the Home 
Missionaries of the West. 

Money, like corn, has a two-fold power — that of min- 
istering to want and that of reproduction. If there were 
a famine in the land, no matter how sore it might be, it 
would be folly to grind up all the seed-corn for food. 
But, on the other hand, suppose, in the midst of the 
famine, after feeding their families and doling out a hand- 
ful in charity, the farmers put all tlie increase back into 
the ground, and do it year after year, while the world is 
starving. That would be something worse than foolish. 
It would be criminal. Yet that is what multitudes of 
men are doing. Instead of applying the power in money 
to the end for which it was entrusted to them, they use it 
almost wholly to accumulate more power. A miller 
might as well spend his life building his dam high and 
higher, and never turn the water to his wheel. Bishop 
Butler said to his secretary : " I should be ashamed of 
myself, if I could leave ten thousand pounds behind me." 
Many professed Christians die disgracefully and ' ' wick- 
edly rich. " The shame and sin, however, lie not in the 
fact that the power was gathered, but that it was un- 
wielded. 

It is the duty of some men to make a great deal of 
money. God has given to them the money-making 
talent ; and it is as wrong to bury that talent as to bury 
a talent for preaching. It is every man's duty to wield 
the widest possible power for righteousness: and the 
power in money must be gained before it can be used. 
But let a man beware ! This power in money is some- 
thing awful. It is more dangerous than dynamite. The 
victims of "saint-seducing gold" are numberless. If a 
Christian grows rich, it should be with fear and trem- 
bling, lest the " deceitf ulness of riches" undo him; for 
Christ spoke of the salvation of a rich man as something 
miraculous (Luke xviii. 24-27). 

Let no man deceive himself by saying: "I will give 



MONEY AITD THE KIIs^GDOM. 245 

when I have amassed wealth. I desire money that I 
may do good with it; but I will not give now, that I 
may give the more largely in the future." That is the 
pit in which many have perished. If a man is growing 
large in wealth, nothing but constant and generous 
giving can save him from growing small in soul. In 
determining the amount of his gifts and the question 
whether he should impair his capital, or to what extent, 
a man should never lose sight of a distinct and intelli- 
gent aim to do the greatest possible good in a life-time. 
Each must decide for himself what is the wisest, the 
highest, use of money ; and we need often to remind our- 
selves of the constant tendency of human nature to sel- 
fishness and self-deception. 

THE PRINCIPLE NOT ACCEPTED. 

The principle which has been stated and briefly applied, 
and which is as abundantly sustained by reason as it is 
clearly taught in the Scriptures, is not accepted by the 
Christian Church. There are many noble gifts and noble 
givers ; but they only help us to demonstrate that great 
multitudes in the church have not yet learned the first 
principles of Christian giving. There were, in' 1890, 
13,411,000^ members of Evangelical Protestant churches 
in the United States. The accompanying table gives 
their contributions to home missions ^ for the fiscal year 
closing in 1890. 

iNew York Independent, July 31,1890. The religious statistics of the Elev- 
enth Census are not yet available, but as those of the Independent and of 
the Census were compiled by the same authority. Rev. H. K. Carroll, D. D., 
the former, which are used in this division, are presumably reliable. 

2 In " home missions " are included in this instance the ordinary domestic 
missions, mission church building, work among the Mormons, New Mexi- 
cans, colored people, Indians and Chinese in the United States and the work 
of the missionary department of the denominational publishing societies. 
Of course city missions are " home missions," but the city missionary work 
of local churches is not included because it is impossible to get anything 
more than fragmentary statistics concerning it. 

The accompanying table includes only 11,889,427 of the evangelical church 
membership in the United States in 1890. But the remainder is made up of 
colored people (600,000) and foreigners who give very little to missions, and 



246 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

Of course a great deal of money was given to various 
benevolences of which there could be no record, but 
$6,717,000 represents approximately what was given 
through the regular denominational channels for home 
missions, which is an average of fifty-six cents per 
member. If, however, we include the several hundred 
thousand church members whose denominations report 
no home missionary contributions, and bear in mind that 
a considerable portion of the above sum was given 
by church-goers who were riot church-members and that 
another large portion was made up of legacies — the gifts 
of the dead — we may fairly say that the home mission- 
ary contributions of the evangelical church-membership 
in 1890 did not average more than fifty cents per caput. ^ 
But many thousands give a dollar each, which means 
that as many thousands more give nothing. There are 
some thousands who give ten dollars; and for every 
thousand of this class there are nineteen thousand who 
do not give anything. Dr. Cuyler says he once had a 
seamstress in his church who used to give a hundred 
dollars a year to missions. Not a few out of larger 
means, give as much ; and, for every one of them, there 
are one hundred and ninety -nine who give nothing. 
Some give five thousand dollars ; and for each of them 
there are ten thousand church-members who do not give 
one cent to redeem this land for which He, with whom 
they profess to be in sympathy, gave His life. There are 
hundreds of churches that do not give anything to home 
or foreign missions ; and of those that do many members 
give nothing. A church in Hartford gave eleven hun- 
dred dollars to home missions. One lady said to 
another: "Didn't we do well this morning?" "No; not 
as a church," was the reply; "for one lady gave six 



of small denominations which, so far as I can learn, have no regular denom- 
inational channels thi-ough which they give to home missionary objects. If 
the gifts of these denominations to missions could be ascertained, they 
would not very materially change our total. 

1 This is a decided advance on ten years before, when home and foreign 
missions together received only about fifty cents for each church-member. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO HOME MISSIONS IN 1890. 









Average 


. 


Membership. 


Contribution. 


per 
caput. 


Congregational, 


491,985 


$1,365,507.55 


$2.77 


Presbyterian— North, 


753,749 


1,137,205.80 


1.50 


Protestant Episcopal, 


470,076 


657,018.31 


1.39 


Moravian, 


11,358 


15,594.15 


1.37 


Evangelical Association, 


145,703 


183,330.38 


1.25 


United Presbyterian, 


101,858 


111,644.40 


1.09 


Primitive Methodist, 


5,502 


5,453.01 


.99 


Baptist— North, 


780,000 


633,267.74 


.81 


Reformed (Dutch), 


88,812 


66,128.66 


.78 


Wesleyan Methodist, 


18,000 


12,000. (Estimated) 


.66 


Reformed Presbyterian, 


6,800 


3,786.78 


.55 


Seventh-Day Baptist, 


9,000 


4,857.29 


.53 


Presbyterian— South, 


161,742 


74,003.96 


.45 


Methodist Epis.— North, 


2,236,463 


891,850. 


.39 


Disciple, 


750,000 


216,27'9.44 


.28 


Reformed (German), 


194,044 


45,000. (Estimated) 


.23 


Lutheran, 


1,188,876 


268,358.62 


22 


Baptist— South, 


1,100,000 


244,334.26 


.22 


Methodist Epis.— South, 


1,161,666 


245,836.37 


.21 


United Brethren, 


199,709 


38,653.29 


.19 


Cumberland Presbyterian, 


160,185 


27,216.39 


.16 


Free-Will Baptist, 


86,297 


13,073.88 


.15 


Methodist Protestant, 


147,604 


11,842. 


.08 


Free Methodist, 


19,998 


1,525.70 


.07 


Baptist— Colored, 


1,200,000 


40,432.47 


.03 


African Meth, Epis. 


400,000 


9,000. (Estimated) 


.02 


American Bible Soc. 




173,640. (Estimated) 




American S. S. Union, 




86,326.94 




Ainerican Tract Soc. 




93,673.90 




Massachusetts Bible Soc. 




24,316.74 




Seaman's Friend Soc. 




15,500. [Estimated] 




Western Tract Soc. 




9,000. [Estimated] 






11,889,427 


$6,717,558.03 


.56 



247 



248 MOl^EY AKD THE KINGDOM. 

hundred dollars and one gentleman gave three hundred." 
If church collections were analyzed, it would appear 
that, as a rule, by far the greater part is given by a very 
few persons, and they not the most able. The great 
majority of church-members give only a trifle or nothing 
at all for the work of missions. 

During the year 1889-90 contributions in the United 
States for foreign missions were $3,977,701.^ A total of 
$10,695,259 for home and foreign missions sounds like a 
large sum. But great and small are relative terms. 
Compared with the need of the world and the ability of 
the church it is pitiable indeed. Look at that ability. 
The Christian religion, by rendering men temperate, in- 
dustrious, and moral, makes them prosperous. There 
are but few of the very poor in our churches. The great 
question has come to be: "How can we reach the 
masses ? " Church-membership is made up chiefly of 
the well-to-do and the rich.^ On the other hand, a 
majority of the membership is composed of women, 
who control less money than men. It is, therefore, fair 
to say that the church-member is at least as well off as 
the average citizen. In 1890, one in every 4.7 of the 
population was a member of some evangelical church, 
that is, 21.92 per cent, of all the people. We may 
reasonably infer, then, that this percentage of the 
wealth of the United States, or $13,076,300,000 was in 
the hands of evangelical church-members at that time ; 
and this takes no account of the immense capital in 
brains and muscles. Of this great wealth 07ie thirty-sec- 
ond part of one per cent, or one dollar out of 3,287, was 
given in 1890 to foreign missions for the salvation of 
seven or eight hundred million heathen. We do not 
know what the income of our church-members is, but if 
in 1890 they had spent every cent of wages, salary and 



1. Almanac of the American Board for 1891, p. 35. 

' The Century says that, of the fifty leading business men of Columbufi, 
Ohio, and Springfield, Mass. (if we are not mistaken in the unnamed cities), 
four-fifths are attendants upon the churches and supporters of them, while 
three-fifths are communicants. 



MOKEY Al^D THE KINGDOM. 249 

other income on themselves and had given to home and 
foreign missions only one one-hundredth part of their real 
and personal property (which would have been unspeak- 
ably mean and unchristian) their contribution would 
have been $130,763,000 instead of $10,695,259. For the 
one item of uncut jewels, largely consisting of dia- 
monds, the people of the United States in 1888 paid 
$10,000,000; and in 1880, church-members paid out nearly 
six times as much for sugar and molasses as for the 
world's salvation, seven times as much for boots and 
shoes, sixteen times as much for cotton and woolen 
goods, eleven times as much for meat, and eighteen 
times as much for bread. From 1880 to 1890 the aver- 
age annual increase of the wealth of church-members was 
$434,790,000. And this, remember, was over and above 
all expense of living and all benevolences ! That is, the 
average annual increase of wealth in the hands of pro- 
fessed Christians was forty times greater than their 
offering to missions, home and foreign. How that offer- 
ing looks, when compared with their wealth and its 
annual increase, may be seen on the opposite page. 

If the members of our Sunday-schools in America, 
gave, each, one cent a Sabbath to missions, it would 
aggregate about one-half as much as is now secured, 
with endless writing and pleading and praying, from 
our entire church-membership. If each of these pro- 
fessed Christians gave five cents — the price of one cigar 
— once a week, it would amount in a year to $35,000,000. 
If each gave one cent every day to that which he pro- 
fesses is the object of his life — the building of the King- 
dom—it would amount to $49,202,000. 

Immense sums are invested freely if there is only a 
chance of large dividends. The Times of India says 
that "nearly $25,000,000 have been invested in search 
for gold in India, and that not $2,500 worth of the 
precious metal has been obtained after three years of 
labor." Christians have opportunities to invest, and 
with perfect security, where they will realize thirty, 
sixty, a hundred-fold — that is three thousand, six thou- 



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250 



MOHEY Ai^D THE KINGDOM. 251 

sand, ten thousand per cent. — yet how few and small the 
investments ! 

Seventy business men of New York subscribed |1,400,- 
000, or 120,000 each, towards the Metropolitan Opera 
House in that city, which was completed a few years 
ago ; and this without receiving or expecting pecuniary 
return. Where are the seventy men who will give one- 
half that amount to home missions? Is the love of 
Italian opera a more powerful motive than love of coun- 
try, love of souls, and love of Christ? 

It Is estimated i that in 1889 the liquor bill of the na- 
tion was $1,000,000,000. As comparatively few women 
and children use intoxicating drinks, and many men do 
not, it is safe to say that this bill was paid by one quar- 
ter or one fifth of the population. That is, in 1890, 
about 13,000,000 people paid $1,000,000,000 for hquors, 
and a like number of prof essed Christians gave $10,695,- 
000 for missions. Any one that did not know better 
might naturally infer that the one class loves beer and 
whiskey better than the other loves souls. 

A while ago a brutal prize-fighter got a purse of $12,- 
000 for pounding an opponent into pulp. Money can be 
had in abundance for illegitimate uses, but a thousand 
interests, dear to the Master as the apple of his eye, 
must languish for the lack of funds. We have seen that 
there is no lack of wealth ; there is money enough in the 
hands of church-members to sow every acre of the earth 
with the seed of truth ; but the average Christian deems 
himself a despot over his purse. God has intrusted to 
his children power enough to give the gospel to every 
creature by the close of this century; but it is being 
misapplied. Indeed, the world would have been evan- 
gelized long ago, if Christians had perceived the relations 
of money to the Kingdom, and had accepted their 
stewardship. There has been too much of the spirit of 
an Ohio church treasurer (a professed Christian), who, 
when his pastor brought his annual contribution to the 

1 Cyclopedia of Temperance and Prohibition, Funk and Wagnalls, 1891. 



252 MOKEY A^B THE KI:N^GD0M. 

American Board, said to him: " You ought not to do it. 
I don't think it's right. You ought to stop giving to 
missions and preach for us on a smaller salary " ; add- 
ing, in conclusion, " We are heathen." A proposition 
which few enlightened men would be disposed to con- 
trovert, though it is a hard rub on the heathen. 

When the heathen come to the light, they are much 
more Christian in their conceptions of duty and privi- 
lege, and shame us by their giving. Six native Chris- 
tians, living on the banks of the Euphrates, whose prop- 
erty averaged, perhaps, eight hundred dollars, gave to- 
ward their chapel and school-room three hundred and 
eight dollars, an average of more than fifty dollars each. 
"This contribution," adds the missionary, "means for 
one of those poor mountaineers more than one thousand 
days' work.'''' "It is an amazing circumstance that, in 
1881, the 1,200 church-members belonging to the mis- 
sions of the United Presbyterian Board, in Egypt — most 
of them very poor men and women — raised £4,546, or 
more than $17 each, for the support of churches and 
schools. The Baptists, among the Karens, have done 
equally well."^ Yes; that is amazing; but it is far 
more amazing that Christians in rich America should 
give only fifty cents each to home missions. If we gave 
as much per caput to home and foreign missions as they 
gave for churches and schools, our offering would be 
$241,000,000, instead of $10,695,000. 

Is it not evident that most of our church-members 
have failed to learn the first principles of Christian giv- 
ing? And many who give most largely do not seem to 
have grasped fully the idea of stewardship, and to hold 
themselves under obligations to use every dollar in the 
way that will most honor God. A wealthy clergy- 
man (!), who was a munificent giver, saw, in Paris, a 
pin that struck his fancy, and gave $800 for it. If, in 
the wide world that was the highest use he could find 
for the money, it was his duty to spend it as he did. 

1 Joseph Cook, Occident, p. 125. 



MOl^EY AiTD THE KINGDOM. 253 

Many give largely, and spend as lavishly on themselves ; 
nor is it strange, in view of the instructions often given. 
A pastor, whose fame is in all the churches, and justly, 
writes : " I say not, indeed, that it is wrong for a man 
to take such a position in society as his riches warrant 
him to assume, or that there is sin in spending money 
on our residences, or in surrounding ourselves with the 
treasures of human wisdom in books, or the triumphs of 
human art in pictures and statuary ; but I do say that 
our gifts to the cause of God ought to be at least abreast 
of our expenditure for these other things." And a 
worthy secretary of one of our most honored benevolent 
societies said: " He shall see the travail of his soul and 
be satisfied — When? Not till beneficence keeps pace with 
luxury.^'' Will that satisfy Him who commended her 
that cast into the treasury all her living, who requires 
of his followers daily cross-bearing, and admits no one 
to discipleship who has not forsaken " all that he hath "? 
Is the Master satisfied when a rich man to gratify ' ' a 
nice and curious palate," spends ten thousand a year on 
his table, provided only beneficence keeps pace with his 
luxury, and he gives as much more to missions? Or, is 
it untrue that God requires every one to make the wis- 
est and the best use of all his money? 

Many churches are never taught that the consecration 
of all our property to God is no more optional than the 
practice of justice or chastity or any other duty. Most 
Christians leave their giving to mere impulse ; they give 
something or nothing, much or little, as they feel like it. 
They might as well attempt to live a Christian life and 
be honest or not as they felt like it. The churches are 
not adequately instructed as to this duty. They hear 
too often of the " Lord's share." The reformation must 
begin with the pulpit. While I would not seem censo- 
rious of my brethren, it must nevertheless be said that 
too many ministers have not laid hold of this truth, or, 
at least, it has not laid hold of them. 

No, there is no lack of wealth in the churches, even in 
hard times. When the rod of conviction and consecra- 



254 MOlfEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

tion smites the flinty rock of selfishness, it will break 
asunder and send forth abundant streams of benefac- 
tion, which shall make glad the waste places and prove 
the water of life to the perishing multitudes. 

ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRINCIPLE URGED. 

Having defined the true principle of Christian giving, 
and glanced at some of the questions of casuistry which 
spring from its application, and having shown that the 
Church does not act on it, it remains to present briefly 
some of the considerations which urge its acceptance. 

1. Duty. It is common to urge benevolence by ap- 
pealing to the hope of larger returns, which are assured 
by many promises of the Word. And such motives 
were needed in the childhood of the race ; but with all 
our light they should not be needed now. Did not 
Christ place giving on a higher plane? He said, "It is 
more blessed to give than to receive," not because of the 
return ; but because giving is more God-like. Men urge 
benevolence as an investment. It is true that the stew- 
ard whom God finds faithful, he is very apt to honor 
with a larger trust ; but this should not be the motive of 
giving. We should "do good, and lend, hoping for 
nothing again." It is true that honesty is the best pol- 
icy ; but if this be the motive of honest dealing, there is 
no real honesty. So when men give because they expect 
a larger return, there is no real giving. In the region of 
right and wrong we may not ask what is politic; we 
stand under the scepter of the absolute Ought, which 
does not reason or advise or plead, but simply says. 
Thou shalt. Whether or not we have learned that only 
that which we give is truly and forever ours, the duty 
to give remains the same. The fact that God requires 
the entire consecration of all our substance, ought, 
alone, to be suflicient to move us ; but there are other 
considerations. 

2. The spiritual life and power of the churches de- 
mand the acceptance of the true doctrine touching pos- 
sessions. We talk about "our crosses." There is no 



MOKET Als^D THE KINGDOM. 255 

such expression in the Bible. The word does not occur 
there in the plural. It has been belittled ; it has come to 
mean trial, disagreeable duty, anything which crosses 
our inclination; but its meaning in the Scriptures is 
never so meager as that. There it always means cruci- 
fixion; like the word gallows, in modern speech, it 
means death. To take one's cross means, in the Bible, 
to start for the place of execution. "If any man will 
come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me." 
Follow him where? To Golgotha. He in whose experi- 
ence there is no Calvary where he himself has been cru- 
cified with Christ, knows little of Christian discipleship. 
Christ demands actual self-abnegation; but where the 
Christian name is honored, and its profession confers 
obvious advantages, self-deception is common and Chris- 
tian experience is liable to be shallow. As quaint old 
Rutherford said : ' ' Men get Christ for the half of noth- 
ing — such maketh loose work." Too many church-mem- 
bers know little or nothing of self -surrender ; hence the 
lack of spiritual life and power. At such times the 
Church suffers for the want of some decisive test, the ap- 
plication of which will show men to themselves, and 
separate, with a good degree of accuracy, those who 
have been crucified with Christ from those who know 
not what it is to "take up the cross." 

In a commercial age, and especially in a luxurious 
civilization, the form of worldliness to which the Church 
is most likely to be tempted is the love of money. As 
the means of almost every possible self -gratification it 
becomes the representative of self; hence the true prin- 
ciple of Christian giving, the actual surrender of all 
substance to God, is exactly the test for the application 
of which the Church is suffering to-day. If this test 
were applied now to every church-member as Christ ap- 
plied it to the young ruler (and the need is the same, 
for the human heart is the same, and heaven and the con- 
ditions of entrance are the same) , would not the record 
in many a case be, ' ' and he went away sorrowful, for he 
had great possessions " ? 



256 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

What right has any one, who has light on this subject, 
to believe he has given himself to God, if he has not 
given his possessions? If he has kept back the less, 
what reason is there tcf think he has given the greater? 
As Jeremy Taylor says:^ "He never loved God who 
will quit anything of his religion to save his money." 

Is not much that the Master said concerning posses- 
sions a dead letter in the church to-day? " Lay not up 
for yourselves treasures upon earth." Is not that 
exactly what many in the church are doing, and many 
more striving with eager energy to do? "The deceitful- 
ness of riches." How many are afraid of being deceived 
by them? How many refuse to run the risk? "How 
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the King- 
dom of Heaven." How many are unwilling to become 
rich or richer? Multitudes now complain that they have 
so little who, on the great day of accounts, will mourn 
that they had so much. The Word declares covetous- 
ness to be idolatry; but how many church-members 
were ever disciplined for this idolatry? There is, how- 
ever, a sign of the millennium down in Maine, where, a 
few years ago, a church disciplined five members because 
they would give nothing. The spiritual life and power 
of the Church can vitalize and save the world only when 
there is a spirit of consecration sufficiently deep and in- 
clusive to accept the true principle of Christian giving. 

3. Again, our safety from the perils which have been 
discussed demands the acceptance of this principle. 

It is not urged as a panacea ; specific remedies, which 
there is no space to discuss, must be applied; reform 
must be pressed ; we need patriotic and wise legislation, 
and to this end fewer politicians and more statesmen; 
but statesmanship cannot save the country. Christ's re- 
fusal to be made a king, and his rejection of Satan's 
offer of the world's scepter, ought to teach those who 
seek to save the world that moral means are necessary 
to moral ends. Christ saw that the world could not be 

1 Holy Living, p 184. 



MO]^EY AKD THE KINGDOM. 257 

saved by legislation, that only by his being "lifted up " 
could all men be drawn unto him. He saw that he could 
not save the world without sacrificing for it; no more 
can we. The saving power of the Church is its sacrific- 
ing power. 

The gospel is the radical cure of the world's great evils, 
and its promulgation, like its spirit, requires sacrifice. 
Money is the sinews of spiritual warfare as well as carnal, 
and a suflicient amount of it would enable us to meet 
these perils with the gospel. 

Christianize the immigrant and he will be easily 
Americanized. Christianity is the solvent of all race 
antipathies. Give the Eomanist a pure gospel and he 
will cease to be a Romanist. It has already been shown 
that Christian education will solve the Mormon problem. 
The temperance reform, like all others which depend on 
popular agitation, must have money, and is being re- 
tarded by the lack of it. Concerning the remedy for so- 
cialism, accept the opinion of an economist who has 
made it a subject of special study. Says Prof. Ely : "It 
is an undoubted fact that modern socialism of the worst 
type is spreading to an alarming extent among our labor- 
ing classes, both foreign and native. I think the danger 
is of such a character as" should arouse the Christian 
people of this country to most earnest efforts for the 
evangelization of the poorer classes, particularly in large 
cities. What is needed is Christianity, and the Chris- 
tian Church can do far more than political economists to- 
ward a reconciliation of social classes. The Church's 
remedy for social discontent and dynamite bombs is 
Christianity as taught in the New Testament. Now in 
all this you will find nothing new. It is only significant 
in this regard: others have come to these conclusions 
from the study of the Bible; from a totally different 
starting point, from the study of political economy, I 
have come to the same goal." i 

1 From a letter by Prof. R. T. Ely to Rev. H. A. Schauffler, D. D. I regret 
that lack of space forbids my quoting the entire letter, which may be 
found in The Home Missionary for October, 1884, p, 227, 



258 MONEY AKD THE KINGDOM. 

But the acceptance of the Christian doctrine concern- 
ing property would have a direct, as well as indirect, 
influence on socialism. Let us therefore dwell a mo- 
ment on the subject. In the popular ferment, a hundred 
years ago, which culminated in the French Revolution, 
the demand was for equal rights and the watchword 
was Liberty. There is a popular ferment throughout 
Europe to-day which is more universal and extends to 
the United States. The popular demand now is equality 
of condition, and the watchword is Property — a cry the 
meaning of which the dullest and most earthly can un- 
derstand. This movement, which is steadily gathering 
force, results from the two most striking facts of the 
nineteenth century : first, the general diffusion of knowl- 
edge through the press, which has wonderfully multi- 
plied wants up. and down the entire social scale; and, 
second, the creation of immense wealth by means of the 
steam engine. But this wealth, which is necessary to 
the satisfaction of these wants, has been massed. In a 
word, the difficulty is knowledge multiplied and popular- 
ized, and wealth multiplied and centralized. 

The right distribution of property, which is the kernel 
of the social question, is the great problem of our civili- 
zation; and it may well be doubted whether the true 
solution will be found until the Church accepts, both in 
doctrine and practice, the* teachings of God's Word 
touching possessions. For the Church is responsible for 
public opinion on all moral questions, and no great ques- 
tion of rights can be settled for the world until Christian 
men come into right relations with it. 

The inexorable law of our present industrial system is 
that the cost of subsistence determines the rate of 
wages. This makes no provision for the higher wants of 
increasing intelligence, and therefore insures an increas- 
ing popular discontent. It would seem that the solution 
of the great difficulties between capital and labor must 
be found in some form of co-operation by which the 
workman will be admitted to a just share in the profits 
of his labor. Professor Cairns, who is considered one of 



MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 259 

the greatest economists England has produced, beheves 
that co-operative production affords the laboring classes 
' ' the sole means of escape from a harsh and hopeless 
destiny "("Leading Principles," p. 338). Referring to 
several thousand co-operative societies in England, hav- 
ing some millions of capital, Thomas Hughes says : "I 
still look to this movement as the best hope for England 
and other lands." The eminent statistician, Carroll D. 
Wright, Commissioner of the Department of Labor, 
Washington, referring to the duty of the rich manufact- 
urer to regard himself as "an instrument of God for 
the upbuilding of the race," and the promotion of the 
highest welfare of those in his employ, says : ' ' This may 
sound like sentiment. I am willing to call it sentiment ; 
but I know it means the best material prosperity, and 
that every employer who has been guided by such senti- 
ments has been rewarded twofold : first, in witnessing 
the wonderful improvement of his people, and, second, 
in seeing his dividends increase, and the wages of his 
operaiives increase with his dividends. The factory 
system of the future will be run on this basis. The in- 
stances of such are multiplying rapidly now."^ Mani- 
festly, the acceptance on the part of Christian capitalists 
of the scriptural doctrine of possessions would greatly 
facilitate the introduction of co-operation or any other 
plan which promised justice to the workman. 

The Christian man who is not willing to make the 
largest profits which an honest regard for the laws of 
trade permits is a rare man. But the laws of trade per- 
mit much that the laws of God do not permit. Many 
transactions are commercially honest which are not 
righteous. If, now, a man accepts the truth that his 
possessions are a trust to be administered for God's 
glory, he will not consent to increase them by any un- 
righteous means. And since justice and righteousness, 
like honesty, will prove to be the best policy, the accept- 



^ For a history of profit-sharing see Gilman's Profit-Sharing Between 
Employer and Employee, 1889. 



260 MOKEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

ance on the part of Christian men of a thoroughly 
righteous plan of co-operation between capital and labor 
would eventually compel its general acceptance. Let 
Christian men gain a correct conception of their rela- 
tions to their possessions, let them accept the duty of 
Christian stewardship, and it would command their 
getting as well as their spending. There would be no 
motive to drive a sharp bargain. It would purify 
trade. It would mediate between capital and labor. It 
would destroy the foundation on which the rising struc- 
ture of socialism rests. It would cut one of the principal 
roots of popular unbelief ; for extended inquiry in Cincin- 
nati elicited the almost unanimous response that the rea- 
son workingmen neglect the churches is that there are on 
the church rolls the names of employers who wrong 
their employees. 

The acceptance of the true principle of Christian giv- 
ing is urged upon us by the fact that money is power, 
which is needed everywhere for elevating and saving 
men. It is further urged upon us by the fact that only 
such a view of possessions will save us from the great 
and imminent perils of wealth. God might have sent 
his angels to sing his gospel through the world, or he 
might have written it on the sky, and made the clouds 
his messengers ; but we need to bear the responsibility of 
publishing that gospel. He might make the safe of 
every benevolent society a gold mine as unfailing as 
the widow's cruse of oil ; but we need to give that gdld. 
The tendency of human nature, intensified by our com- 
mercial activity, is to make the life a whirlpool — a great 
maelstrom which draws everything into itself. What is 
needed to-day is a grand reversal of the movement, a 
transformation of the life into a fountain. And in an 
exceptional degree is this the need of Anglo-Saxons. 
Their strong love of liberty, and their acquisitiveness, 
afford a powerful temptation to offer some substitute for 
self-abnegation. We would call no man master; we 
must take Christ as master. We would possess all 
things ; we must surrender all things. 



MOKEY AKD THE KlNGJDOM. " 261 

One of the grave problems before us is how to make 
great material prosperity conduce to individual advance- 
ment. The severest poverty is unfavorable to morality. 
Up to a certain point increase of property serves to ele- 
vate man morally and intellectually, while it improves 
him physically. But, as nations grow rich, they are 
prone to become self-indulgent, effeminate, immoral. 
The physical nature becomes less robust, the intellectual 
nature less vigorous, the moral less pure. The pam- 
pered civilizations of old had to be reinvigorated, from 
time to time, with fresh infusions of barbaric blood — a 
remedy no longer available. If we cannot find in Chris- 
tianity a remedy or preventive, our Christian civiliza- 
tion and the world itself is a failure ; and our rapidly in- 
creasing wealth, like the "cankered heaps of strange- 
achieved gold," will curse us unto destruction. 

But the recognition of God's ownership in all our sub- 
stance is a perfect antidote for the debilitating and cor- 
rupting influence of wealth. It prevents self-indulgence, 
and the apprehension of religious truth implied in such 
recognition affords the strongest possible motives to sac- 
rifice and active effort of which men are capable. A 
hundred years ago poverty compelled men to endure 
hardness, and so served to make the nation great. Now 
that we are exposed to the pampering influence of 
riches, Christian principle must inspire the spirit of 
self-denial for Christ's sake, and the world's sake, and so 
make the nation greater. 

Where that spirit obtains, Mammonism and materi- 
alism, as well as luxuriousness, lose their power, and 
wealth, instead of being centralized, is distributed. So 
that Christian stewardship, so far as it is accepted, 
affords perfect protection against all the perils of wealth. 

Our cities, which are gathering together the most dan- 
gerous elements of our civilization, will, in due time, 
unless Christianized, prove the destruction of our free 
institutions. During the last hundred years, the instru- 
ments of destruction have been wonderfully multiplied. 
Offensive weapons have become immeasurably more 



S6^ mo:n"ey a^d the kikgdom. 

effective. Not so the means of defense. Your life is in 
the liand of every man you meet. Society is safe to-day 
only so far as every man becomes a law unto himself. 
The lawless classes are growing much more rapidly than 
the whole population; and nothing but the gospel can 
transform lawless men and women into good citizens. 

The number of missionaries in our cities ought to be 
increased ten or twenty-fold ; and their work is expen- 
sive. It is usually the densest populations which are 
most neglected, and in such quarters mission chapels 
cannot be built without large expenditures. If our cities 
are to be evangelized, laymen must greatly enlarge their 
ideas of the demands of the work, and of their pecuniary 
responsibility for it. 

The perils which have been discussed (Chaps. IV. — XI.) 
have, all of them with the single exception of Mormon- 
ism, continued to grow more rapidly during the past 
five years than the whole population. It is also true 
that the membership of the evangelical churches has 
increased more rapidly than the population. The 
Church of Christ has aroused herself in some measure, 
but, so far as I can judge, the dangerous and destructive 
elements of society are still making greater progress 
than the conservative. 

Has not the time fully come when the Church must 
make a new departure of some sort? And is it not evi- 
dent that one of the first needs is a true view of the 
relations of money to the Kingdom, and such a spirit of 
consecration as will lay it and all else on the altar? 

4. We have seen, in the preceding chapters, that a 
mighty emergency is upon us. Our country's future, 
and much of the world's future, depend on the way in 
which Christian men meet the crisis. Do you say : "I 
trust in God, and therefore have no fear ; I believe what 
some one has said, ' If God intends to save the world, he 
cannot afford to make an exception of America,' This 
country is his chosen instrument of blessing to mankind ; 
and God's plans never fail?" The difference between a 
true and a false faith is that one inspires action while 



MOKEY AND THIS KINGDOM. xJ63 

the other paralj^zes it. God saved the nation during 
the War of the RebelHon ; but it was not by a false faith, 
which, with folded arms, rehearsed its confidence in the 
divine decrees. It was by a faith which inspired sacri- 
fice. At the time of Paul's shipwreck, it was revealed 
to him that they were all to be saved ; but, nevertheless, 
there were conditions with which they must comply, or 
be lost. Their salvation was certain^ but not necessary; 
it was conditioned. I believe our country will be saved. 
Its salvation may be certain in the counsels of God; 
but it is not necessary. I believe it to be conditioned on 
the Church's rising to a higher spirit of sacrifice. 

When the drum beat the nation to battle, a generation 
ago, no sacrifice was too great; wives gave their hus- 
bands, parents gave their sons. A Christian mother 
had sent seven sons into the Union army. Near the 
close of the war, the eighth, and only remaining son, 
paid a visit to his mother, and, speaking of the war, 
said: "Mother, what would you do if one of the boys 
should fall in the struggle?" Turning her deep eyes 
upon him, she said : ' ' God has given me nine noble sons ; 
one he has taken to himself, seven are in the army, and 
I want you to understand, my son, that I only hold you 
as a reserve for your country's defense; and the first 
breach that you hear of as being made in our number, 
go quickly, and fill it; and may God take care of you, 
and I will take care of your children." Is it easier to 
give one's flesh and blood than to give silver and gold ? 
We are engaged in what Lord Bacon called the " heroic 
work of making a nation;" for which heroic sacrifices 
are demanded. 

And our plea is not America for America's sake ; but 
America for the world's sake. For, if this generation is 
faithful to its trust, America is to become God's right 
arm in his battle with the world's ignorance and oppres- 
sion and sin. If I were a Christian African or Arab, I 
should look into the immediate future of the United 
States with intense and thrilling interest ; for as Pro- 
fessor Hoppin of Yale has said : ' ' America Christianized 



264 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 

means the world Christianized." And, "If America 
fail," says Professor Park, "the world will fail." 
During this crisis, Christian work is unspeakably more 
important in the United States than anywhere else in the 
world. "The nations whose conversion is the most 
pressing necessity of the world to-day," says Professor 
Phelps, ' ' are the Occidental nations. Those whose 
speedy conversion is most vital to the conversion of the 
rest are the nations of the Occident. The pioneer stock 
of mind must be the Occidental stock. The pioneer races 
must be the Western races. And of all the Western 
races, who that can read skillfully the providence of God, 
or can read it at all, can hesitate in affirming that the signs 
of divine decree point to this land of ours as the one 
which is fast gathering to itself the races which must 
take the lead in the final conflicts of Christianity for 
possession of the world ? Ours is the elect nation for the 
age to come. We are the chosen people. We cannot 
afford to wait. The plans of God will not wait. Those 
plans seem to have brought us to one of the closing stages 
in the world's career, in which we can no longer drift 
with safety to our destiny. We are shut up to a perilous 
alternative. Immeasurable opportunities surround and 
overshadow us. Such, as I read it, is the central fact in 
the philosophy of American Home Missions. " ^ 

What a consummate blunder to live selfishly in such a 
generation ! What food for everlasting reflection and 
regret in a life lived narrowly amid such infinitely wide 
opportunities ! 

Says a New York daily paper : "A gentleman died at 
his residence in one of our up-town fashionable streets, 
leaving eleven millions of dollars. He w^as a member of 
the Presbyterian church, in excellent standing, a good 
husband and father, and a thrifty citizen. On his death- 
bed he suffered with great agony of mind and gave 
continual expression to his remorse for what his con- 



Frora letter read at the Home Missionary Anniversary in Chicago, 
June 9th, 1881. 



MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 265 

science told him had been an ill-spent life. ' Oh ! ' he ex- 
claimed, ' if I could only live my years over again ! Oh ! 
if I could only be spared for a few years, I would give all 
the wealth I have amassed in a life- time. It is a life 
devoted to money-getting that I regret. It is this which 
weighs me down, and makes me despair of the life here- 
after.'" Suppose so unfaithful a steward is permitted to 
enter the " many mansions." When, with clarified spirit- 
ual vision, he perceives the true meaning of life, and 
sees tnat he has lost the one opportunity of an endless 
existence to set in motion influences, which, by leading 
sinners to repentance, would cause heaven to thrill with 
a new joy, it seems to me he would gladly give a hun- 
dred years of Paradise for a single day on earth in posses- 
sion of the money once entrusted to him— time enough to 
turn that power into the channels of Christian work. 
The emergency created by the settlement of the states 
and territories of the West — a grand constellation of 
empires — is to be met by placing in the hand of every 
Christian agency there at work all the power that money 
can wield. There is scarcely a church, or society, or 
institution of any kind doing God service there which is 
not embarassed, or sadly crippled for lack of funds. Mis- 
sionaries should be multiplied, parsonages and churches 
built, and colleges generously endowed. The nation's 
salt, with which the whole land and pre-eminently the 
tainted civilization of the frontier, must be sweetened, is 
Christian education. The tendency, which is so marked 
in many of our older and larger colleges, to develop 
and furnish simply the intellect, is full of peril. Divorce 
religion and education, and we shall fall a prey either 
to blundering goodness or weU-schooled villainy. The 
young colleges of the West, like Drury, Doane, Carleton, 
Colorado, Yankton, Fargo, and others, founded by broad- 
minded and far-seeing men are characterized by a strong 
religious influence, and send a surprising proportion of 
their graduates into the ministry. In view of their 
almost boundless possibilities for usefulness in their 
relations to the future of the West and of the nation, 



266 MONEY A>^D THE KINGDOM. 

and in view of their urgent needs, it is a wonder that 
those who, Kke Boaz, are mighty men of wealth, can 
deny themselves the deep and lasting pleasure of liber- 
ally endowing such institutions. Said one who had just 
given fifty thousand dollars to a Western college : "I 
cannot tell you what I have enjoyed. It is like being 
born into the Kingdom again. " 

This emergency demands the acceptance of Christian 
stewardship, that our great benevolent societies may be 
adequately furnished for theh- work. They are kept 
constantly on their knees before the public, and with 
pleas so pitiful, so moving, the marvel to me is that, 
when Christian men hold their peace and their purse, 
the very stones do not cry out. And, notwithstanding 
all their efforts to secure means, they must, every one, 
scrimp at every point, decline providential calls to en- 
large their work, and even retrench, in order to close 
the fiscal year without a debt. 

The door of opportunity is open in all the earth ; organ- 
izations have been completed, languages learned, the 
Scriptures translated, and now the triumph of the King- 
dom awaits only the exercise of the power committed to 
the Church, but which she refuses to put forth. If she 
is to keep step with the majestic march of the divine 
Providence, the Church must consecrate the power 
which is in money. 

5. Oh ! that men would accept the testimony of Christ 
touching the blessedness of giving! He who sacrifices 
most, loves most; and he who loves most, is most 
blessed. Love and sacrifice are related to each other 
like seed and fruit ; each produces the other. The seed 
of sacrifice brings forth the fragrant fruit of love, and 
love always has in its heart the seeds of new sacrifice. 
He who gives but a part is not made perfect in love. 
Love rejoices to give all ; it does not measure its sacri- 
fice. It was Judas, not Mary, who calculated the value 
of the alabaster box of ointment. He who is infinitely 
blessed is the Infinite Giver ; and man, made in his like- 
ness, was intended to find liis liighest blessedness in tlie 



MONEY AisD THE Kli^^GDOM. 267 

completest self-giving. He who receives, but does not 
give, is like the Dead Sea. All the fresh floods of Jor- 
dan cannot sweeten its dead, salt depths. So all the 
streams of God's bounty cannot sweeten a heart that 
has no outlet ; that is ever receiving, yet never full and 
overflowing. 

If those whose horizon is as narrow as the bushel 
under which they hide their light could be induced to 
come out into a large place, and take a worthy view of 
the Kingdom of Christ and of their rcLitions to it, if 
they could be persuaded to make the principle of Chris- 
tian giving regnant in all their life, their happiness 
would be as much increased as their usefulness. 



INDEX. 



— / 

PAGE 

Adams, John 214, 215 

Agassiz 170 

Agricultural resources of the United States 23, 24 

Product for 1880, note 27 

Alaska, timber lands of 38 

Alexander III 49 

Alcohol, increase in use of 127 

Americans, physical degeneracy of 217, 218 

Anglo-Saxons and the world's future 208-227 

Two great ideas represented by 208, 209 

Multiplication and expansion of, in modern times 210 

Future growth of 211-213 

Becoming more effective in the United States than in Great Britain 219-222 

Characteristics of. 220, 221 

Arable lands of the West 35, 36, 37 

Of the East 38 

Area of China 23 

Of the United States 23, 24 

" " Argentine Republic 76 

" " Arid lands 36 

Arizona, lands of 33 

Arkansas, timber lands of 37 

Armament of Europe 51 

Armies, cost of standing 164, 165 

Arnold, Matthew 28, 50, 106, 170 

Artesian Wells 35 

Atkinson, Dr 17 

Atkinson, Edward 24, 172 

Austria 48, 71 

Bacon, Lord 263 

" Bad Lands " 31 

Baltimore, Third Plen. Council of 80, 81, 94 

Barrows, Dr. W. M 113 

Baxter, Dr 218 

Beardj Dr. Geo. M 124, 125, 217 

Beautiful, how far may we gratify our love for the ? 233-237 

Beecher, Henry Ward 61 

Bellarmine, Cardinal ' 68 

Bible in Public Schools 95, 96 

Bishops' oath 72 

Bismarck 70 

Blanc, Louis 138 

Blanchard, Rev. A 35 

Borax 40 

Boruttau 145 

Boscawen 197 

Boulangism 47 

Bowker, R. R : 237 

Brewer's Congress 132, 133 

British Colonies, increase in population in 212 

Brown, Rev. Dr. C. 108 

Brownson Dr. O. A 72, 78 

Burke, Edmund 202 

Burnaby ,,,,,,,,,,, 215 



270 INDEX. 

Busbnell, Dr 223, 224, 229, 230 

Butler, Bishop 244 

Buxton 16 

California, extent of, 30 ; gold, 88 ; iron, 40 ; wealth of 41 

Campbell, Lord 17 

Calisch, Rabbi 99 

Capital, consecration of 243-245 

Carlvle 203 

Carroll, Dr. H. K 245 

Catechism, Roman 84, 85 

Catholic University at Washington 95 

Cattle " Kings " 159 

Child labor 147, 148 

China, area and population of 23 

Churches, Evangelical 88 

Church Members, proportion of in states and territories 201, 202 

Number of 88 

Contributions of, per caput 247 

Wealth of 248-250 

City, the peril of the 179-190 

Growth of. 179 

Proportion of foreigners in 180, 181 

Liquor Power in 181 

Wealth and poverty in 181-183 

Socialism in 183-185 

Number of churches to population in 185 

. Religious destitution of 185-187 

Government of 187-189 

Clark, Dr. N. G 226 

Coal 25, 40 

Colorado, gold and silver products of, 39 ; wealth of 41 

Commerce, domestic 164 

Commerce follows the missionary 28 

Comstock, Anthony 136 

Comstock Lode 39 

Contributions of various denominations to Home Missions 247 

Cook, Joseph 140, 144, 150 

Copper 40 

Cotton-gin 16 

Cotton, C. B. confessions of 134, 135 

Cotton Exchange of New York 168 

Cousin 104 

Crime 57 

Criminals, increase of 59 

Immigration of 55 

Crosby, Dr Howard 136, 174 

Dakota, 30 ; " Bad Lands "of. 31 

Dale, Rev. Dr 106 

D'Alembert 136 

D'Aranda 215 

Darwin, Professor 218, 219, 223 

Debts, public, of Europe < 52 

Density of population in European States and United States 216 

Desert 31-35 

De Tocqueville 42, 50, 152, 190 

Deuster, P. V 131 

Diagram, showing wealth of church members and gifts to missions 250 

Showing wealth and contributions of church members 250 

Showing City population 178 

Showing wealth of United States 163 

Showing earnings and expenses of working men 138 

Showing liquor bill compared with contributions 121 

Showing Mormon possessions Ill 

Showing wealth producing land of East and West 29 

Showing native and foreign population of the United States 44 

Showing strength of Romanism in territories 62 

Dickens 221 

Discontent 150-157 

Division of school fund 98 



INDEX. 271 

Divorce 192 

Dorchester, Dr. D 87, 201, 217 

Dike, S. W 192 

East of the Mississippi, area 31 

Arable lands. 38 

Ely, Professor E. T 141, 143, 148, 257 

Emerson 173, 220 

Empire, westward movement of. 215 

English, Bishop 69 

Fairbairn, William 16 

Fawcett, Professor 49, 144 

Focal points of history 15 

Food, per caput, in United States and Europe 46 

Foreign-born population in United States in 1880, 55 ; in 1890 55 

Tendency toward aggregation of 59, 60 

Foreign population, proportion of, in western states and teri-itories 60, 201 

And crime 57 

And liquor traffic 57 

France 47 

Franklin, Benjamin 112, 214 

Fremont, J. C 33 

Frontier population, heterogeneous character of 200 

Froude 225 

Fulton's steamboat 17 

Galiani 215 

Gambling spirit 176 

Garfield, President 99, 203 

George, Henry 140, 158, 185, 188 

Germany 47, 48 

Socialism in 143 

Giflfen, Robert 205 

Gilmour , Bishop 63 

Giving, Christian ; the principle stated 231, 232 

The principle applied 232-245 

The principle is not accepted by the church 245-253 

Acceptance of the principle urged 253-267 

Gladstone 21, 27, 50, 52, 64, 70 

Goethe 107 

Gold and silver product of the United States 25, 39 

Goodwin, Dr. E. P 159 

Gottschalk 176 

Graham, Robert 133 

Grant, General ". 99 

Grazing lands of the West v 35 

" Great American Desert " 31-35 

Great Britain, laud holders in 45 

Popular discontent in 49 

Local indebtedness of 49 

Increase of population in 212 

Great Columbia Plains 35 

Grimm, Jacob 226 

Guizot 144 

Gypsum 40 

Hatton , Joseph 20 

Heathen, the giving by converted 252 

Hecker, Father 79, 94 

Herbert, George 241 

Herodotus 172 

Higginson , Francis 221 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell 195 

Hoppin, Prof 263 

Hughes, Thomas 49 

Hugo, Victor 50, 233 

Hungary 76 

Huxley, Prof 217 

Idaho, extent of, 30 ; gold and silver, 39 ; sulphur 40 

Ideas, progress of great 18 

Illinois, wealth of 41 

Illiteracy , 76 



272 INDEX. 

Illiteracy in United States 59 

Immigration, 44^61 ; causes of 44-55 

Influence of, on morals, 55-58 ; political aspects of 58-60 

And illiteracy 59 

Intelligence, higher, demanded for large populations ; 190-192 

Intemperance, 121-137 ; of West compared with East 130 

Intoxicants, increase in use of 126-128 

Ireland, Archbishop 109 

Iron ore 25 

Isaacs, Kabbi 100 

Italy 48,76 

Ivins, Hon. W. M 169 

Jesuits 90 

Josephites 112 

Kam, Bishop 68, 91 

Kannin, Daimiyo-jin-san 238, 239 

Kansas, alkaline lands of 32 

Wealth of 41 

Kendrick, Archbishop 82 

Kimball, Heber C 120 

" Kings," Cattle 159 

Lafayette 91 

Lands, exhaustion of public 203-207 

Laveleye, Professor De 78 

Lea, Henry Charles 67, 71 

Lead 40 

Lecky 149 

Leo XIII 64, 65, 66, 73, 78 

Leonard, Rev. D. L 115 

Liberal League, platform of 100 

Liberty, progress of 18 

Life, increasing valuation of human 19 

Liquor Bill of the nation 251 

Liquor Power, the, 131-137 ; wealth of 131 

Methods of 133-135 

Liquor traffic, carried on by foreigners 58 

Livy 172 

Lloyd, H. D 168 

London, Bitter Cry of Outcast 182, 183 

Louisiana, sulphur of 40 

Lourdelot 26 

Lowell, Mrs. J. S 184 

Lunt, Bishop 114 

Luxuriousness, one of the perils of wealth 171, 173 

Macaulay 152, 203 

Machinery, labor-saving, to increase 54 

Influence of 146, 147 

Superior in the United States 26 

Mammonism, 166-169; corrupts morals, 167 ; blocks reforms, 169 ; corrupts 

the ballot-box 169 

Manning, Cardinal 63, 65, 67, 72 

Manufacturers in the United States 26-28 

Marble • • 41 

Materialism, one of the perils of wealth I'0, 171 

Maurice, Rev. J. F. D 1^8 

McQuaid, Bishop • • "^ 

Mechanical invention, influence of, on luxuriousness A'^i ^^^ 

Metropolitan Opera House in New York, subscriptions for 2ol 

Mexico 71, 76 

Military duty in Europe ^^ 

Millionaires 1^4 

Milton 202 

Mineral products of United States from 1870-1880, 25 ; of the West 40 

Minnesota, timber lands of ^J 

Wealth of 41 

Missionary, commerce follows the 28 

Missions, amount given to 248 

Mississippi and affluents, navigation of 23 

Missouri, iron, 40 j lead •, 4Q 



INDEX. 273 

Money, the power of 228, 229 

And the kingdom 228-267 

Montana, extent, 30 ; gold and silver 39 

Montesquieu • • 41 

Montgomery's " Mormon Delusion " quoted 117, 118, 120 

Morals, popular 192 

Mormon Church, officers of 113 

Ac Q (^olonizGr •..••4. •... J.j.0 

Mormonism, 111-120 ; polygamy not an essential part of, 112; strength of, 

112, 113 ; dangers of, 117 ; remedy for 118-120 

Mormons, designs of, 114,115; possessions of, 115; increase of, by immi- 
gration, 116 ; apostacy of 116 

Morse, Professor, S. F. B 91 

Mudge, Professor 32 

Mulhall 25,27,46,166,172 

Muller, Rev. M 83 

Napoleon 226 

Nebraska, lands of 32 

Nervous belt, the 124 

Nevada, lands of, 33; gold and silver, 39; borax 40 

Newman , Cardinal ]^ 

New England, unimproved lands in 38 

New Glarus 60 

New Granada '. "^1 

New Mexico 30, 31 

New York, unimproved lands in 38 

Wealth of 41 

Nihilists 49 

Northampton, Mass 197, 198 

Oath of bishops 72 

Opium, increased consumption of 125 

Optimism, political 44 

Oregon, iron ore of 40 

Park, Professor 264 

Parochial schools 93 

Patents issued by English Government, 18 ; by United States 26, 54 

Pennsylvania, unimproved lands in 38 

Peril, the supreme 194 

Perils, increase of 262 

Petroleum Exchange of New York 168 

Pettenkofer, Dr. Max von 129 

Phelps^ Professor 15 

" Physical Degeneracy of Americans " 217, 218 

Pius IX 64, 70, 71, 74, 84 

Plutarch 104 

Polygamy not an essential part of Mormonism 112 

Population, density of, in European states and United States 216 

Possessions, God's ownership in our 230-232 

Powell, J. W 34, 36 

Power, distribution of; the fundamental idea of popular government. .192, 193 

Loom 16 

Precious metals 25 

Preston, Vicar-General 66, 93 

Produce Exchange of New York 168 

Public lands, exhaustion of 203-207 

Public School and Romanism 74, 92 

Bible in 95, 96 

Religion in 92-110 

Not Protestant 98 

Rae, John 46 

Races, competition of 222-225 

Railways, construction of, from 1870 to 1880 53 

In the world 17 

Of Great Britain, passengers conveyed by 17 

Rainfall 37 

Rawlinson 219 

Resources, national 21-28 

River flow, miles of 23 

Roman Catholics, two types of 79-85 



274 INDEX. 

Eoman Catholics, allegiance of 64 

Romanism 62-90 ; fundamental principles of, 62, 76 ; compared with Amer- 
ican institutions 63-77 ; un-American 97 

Attitude of, toward our free institutions 78, 79 

Growth of, in the United States 85-91 

Losses of, in the United States 86-94 

In the West 89-91 

Responsible for skepticism 86 

Statistics of 88 

University of, at "Washington, 95; and popular education 75, 76 

Rusldn 237 

Russia 49, 76 

Rutherford 255 

Sacrifice, the law of 239-241 

Salt 40 

Schaff, Professor 82 

Schauffler, Rev. H. A '' jge 

Schauffler, Rev. A F 187 

School Fund, division of 98 

Schouppe, Father '."...'....'.... 69 

Securalists, and the Public Schools 99 

Seelye, Pres. J. H ....'.'...['.'. '.ih, 160 

Settlers, influence of early 195-202 

Seward, W. H '....*.'... ....... . .38 

Shea, Chief Justice '.'.......".... 100 

Shearman, Thomas G !!!!!!!!..! 174 

Silver and gold product of the United States 25 . 

Slavery 18 

Smalley E. V '. ,.".".".".'.".".'. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '..32, 34 

Smith, Adam 155, 215 

Smithy Prof. R. M 47 

Socialism, 138-lGl ; increase of, in Germany , 48 ; Socialistic Labor Party, 139, 
140 ; International Workingmen's Association, 139-143 ; Chicago 
socialists, 142 ; press, 142 ; increase of, 143-144 ; influenced by immi- 
gration, 143, 144; by individualism, 144; by skepticism, 145; by de- 
velopment of classes, 145-149 ; by discontent, 150-156 ; conditions of 

the West peculiarly favorable to the growth of 158, 160 

Soda 40 

Southey 225 

South Carolina, wealth of 41 

Spain 76 

Spencer, Herbert 26, 138, 188, 220 

Spinning mule 16 

Springer, W. S 179 

" Staked Plain " of Texas 32 

Story, Judge 101 

Sulphur 40 

Sumner, Charles 172, 215 

Syllabus of Errors 64, 74 

Tammany, leaders of 188 

Taxation in Europe and United States 52 

Taylor, Jeremy 256 

Telegraph lines of the world 17 

Annual messages 17 

Tenement houses 184 

Tennyson 219, 226 

Texas, 30; capable of supporting present population of United States.. 31 
" Staked Plain " of, 32 ; timber lands of, 37 ; iron, 40 ; gypsum, 40 ; 

division of, into several states 42 

Thomas, Gov 118 

Timber 7, 35, 37 

Tithes, misconception of the doctrine of 230, 231 

Tithing 230-232 

Tramps taking possesson of a town 160 

Trusts 155 

United States, area of, 23, 24 ; agricultural resources of, 23, 25 ; increase of 

population in, 212 ; the seat of Anglo-Saxon power 214, 216 

Utah, lands of, 32 ; iron 40 

Vatican Council 65 



INDEX. 275 

Vermont, wealth of 41 

Venillot, M. Louis ^ 73 

Virtue, higher, demanded for large populations 190, 191 

Von Moltke 50 

Wall Street Kings 154 

Warren, Eev. Dr. J. H 90 

Washington 105 

Waste Lands of East 38 

Wealth, perils of, 162-177 ; per caput in several states, 41 ; produced from 
1870 to 1890, 162; meaning of, iiji the United States, 166; aristocracy 

. ci, in the United States, 166,167 ; congestion of 173-175 

Webster 101, 104, 109 

Wells, David A 218 

Wesley, John 242 

West, ioredow, Tivies on the rapid development of, 20; live stock in, 38; 

mineral wealth of, 38, 39 ; foreign-born population in 60 

Western Eeserve, two towns on the 195-197 

Wheat Lands 35 

Whipple 170, 216 

Whittier 199 

Wives, English sale of 19 

Womanhood, increasing honor to 18, 19 

Woodruff, Wilford •. . . 118 

Woolsey, President 104, 192 

Wright, Carroll D 259 

Wyoming, iron, 40; sulphate of soda. 40 

Young, Brigham 113 

Young, C. E '. 129 



American Home Missionary Society 

BIBLE HOUSE, N. Y. 



Eev. David B. Coe, Honorary Secretary. 

Eev. Joseph B. Clakk, Eev. William Kincaid, Secretaries. 

Eev. Alex'r H. Clapp, Treasurer. 



Sixty-five years ago tlie American Home Missionary Society 
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Christian education to the destitute within the United 
States. 

It began its work near the commencement of that great " world- 
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York was a frontier region, two-thirds of its missionaries were found 
in this State. 

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can estimate the influence they are exerting in building up the new 
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be gained from the following facts. 

In sixty-five yeaf-s its missionaries have organized 5,621 churches 
and brought 2,663 to self-support. They have gathered into these 
churches 388,281 members. Cash receipts, |13,984,024.91. 

During the sixty-fifth year 1,912 missionaries minirj^^erod to 3,270 
congregations and 154,722 Sunday-school scholars ; organizing 212 
new churches and 292 Sunday -schools ; and receiving into the churches 
11,320 members. Cash receipts, $635,180.45. 

Never before were the calls for Home Missionary work so loud. 
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were our institutions in greater peril. Eead • this book of these 
perils and their remedy. Then let every pai.:.;:;. and Christian ask 
if he is not responsible for applying this remedy. The average cost 
to this Society for evch. of its missionaries is $341 per year. 

Are there not many who will each contribute enough to support 
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TH E 

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THE ONE GOSPEL; 

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